Chinese Women Play Greater Role

 BEIJING, August 27, 2001 — Headline in the China Daily: "Women Play Greater Role In Economy."

Among the animals, the male of the species usually presents the more colorful, attractive dress, not the female. The male peacock struts about with its iridescent fan of feathers outspread to entice a mate. The huge silverback alpha male gorilla and the lion with handsome mane both compel attention by their striking displays. Not so the male of the human species today.

In China today, even more than in the West, it is the female who exhibits colorful attire and varieties of style. Dresses are of bright, distracting prints, with hemlines that range from ankle to thigh. Trousers come in full-length or in short-short versions. Blouses are variegated and may show the logos of Lanvin, Gucci, Cardin—most, I suspect, counterfeit. The men's attire is variable but, as in most of the West, drab by comparison.

Women's hair may be cut short or may reach to the waist. As seen from the very last row of a theater, the sea of straight black, lustrous hair is a wonder to behold. As a result of Western influence, a few men and women have curled their hair and some women have taken to lipstick, eye shadow and plucked eyebrows.

As is also standard in the West, females are a growing percentage of the labor force, accounting for nearly 47 percent. The fact that they are reported to contribute 38 percent of the value of production bespeaks their lower earnings. In fact, these data show that women earn about 70 percent as much as men. This may be compared with a figure of around 75 percent in the U.S. These estimates are crude primarily because production as measured by gross domestic product (GDP) omits all non-market production, including the value of unpaid services rendered in and about the home.

A special peculiarity in China pertains to gender-free names. Unlike most names in the West, the sex of an individual here is not suggested by his or her name. For example, Li Peng could denote a man or woman. This would seem to be an advantage to women since, sight unseen, a prospective employer or a professor reading examination papers cannot generally determine a person's sex from a name. Therefore, discrimination or prejudice is less readily practiced.

A feminist is cheered to learn that the Women Leaders Network in China and the Asia-Pacific Co-operation meetings held recently in Beijing featured key roles for women. The opening ceremony was chaired by an officer of the All-China Women's Federation. Significant, too, was President Jiang's message wherein he noted the contribution of women to world peace. An American counterpart organization, Women Against Military Madness (WAMM), headquartered in Minnesota, publicizes the huge discrepancies between military expenditures in the U.S. and federal expenditures on such services as health and education. They have also emphasized the fact that the U.S. and NATO countries spend about 20 times as much on "defense" as does China. The very existence of a so-called Chinese threat is called into question. WAMM is independent of government, indeed hostile to its military policies, while China's counterparts are probably sanctioned by government.

The aggressive nature of male animals, including mankind, is notorious.  If Chinese data on criminal activity parallel those of America, China will come to reveal a startling situation related to world peace. For example, in the U.S., counting arrests recorded for all crimes, males overwhelmingly predominate:  men are arrested and charged in over 90 percent of murders, rapes and burglaries. The aggressive behavior of male primates, which share 97 percent of the same genes, has been extensively studied (Demonic Males, by Richard Wrangham and Dale Petersen) and the findings bear directly on the feminist agenda in both China and the West.

Cultural exchange between China and America may be greatly enhanced if women's efforts in behalf of world peace are more fully coordinated.