Convening next week for its annual gathering, the U.N. Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) will mark 30 years since the famous Fourth World Conference on Women in 1995, also known as the “Beijing conference.” CSW will assess the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, a landmark resolution adopted at the conference that provided a comprehensive, progressive framework for achieving gender equality and women’s empowerment. With rising anti-feminist political movements in China and around the world, and with only five years left to achieve the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (most of which are unattainable without gender equality), this anniversary has generated a particular sense of urgency. This week, The Guardian’s Isabel Choat reflected on the impact of the 1995 Beijing conference, through the lens of some of the participants:
The sense that Beijing was transformative, personally and politically, is echoed by countless women, many of whom went on to become leaders in the women’s movement. “The atmosphere was incredible. I’d never sat with someone from Tibet or the Middle East – there was excitement and a feeling that we could achieve a lot,” says Lydia Alpízar Durán, co-executive director of IM-Defensoras, a Latin American network of female defenders. “We got a lot done in Beijing. Beyond the government agreement we built a global women’s movement. Beijing catalysed so many processes.”
[…] But if the contemporary political landscape is very different from the 1990s “golden era” of trust in democracy, multilateralism and institutions, the lessons learned from Beijing are still relevant, say the women who were there.
“We can’t forget we were the people who pushed back an unequal world – we were pushing back and transforming. We spent years explaining and showing the world there were inequalities and that we wanted to be better. We are fighting for democracies, so we can not think only ‘how are we going to react?’ but ‘what are we going to continue doing?’” says [Ana Cristina González], who [was part of the Latin American delegation to the conference and] now heads Causa Justa, the group that spearheaded the campaign to decriminalise abortion in Colombia – a fight it won in 2022. [Source]
In China, the state of gender equality and women’s rights has deteriorated under Xi Jinping. Highlighting specific challenges in this respect, Lee Chung Lun at the International Service for Human Rights published a statement, delivered during the 58th session of the U.N. Human Rights Council, on behalf of Chinese feminist activists commemorating the 30th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action:
Feminist activists and women human rights defenders (WHRDs) face increasing State repression, including censorship, surveillance, arbitrary detention, harassment, and politically motivated charges. Broader movements such as the #MeToo movement, which was inspired by global efforts to expose sexual harassment and gender-based violence, have been targeted by a government that refuses to yield space for any form of organising or an independent civil society. While enjoying support from younger generations, China’s #MeToo movement has been confronted by a still predominantly patriarchal society, and conservative courts dismissing the rare cases brought by survivors.
[…] In partnership with Chinese feminist activists who cannot address the HRC out of fear of reprisals, ISHR’s statement highlights the resilience and determination of feminist activists in China as they continue their struggle despite mounting challenges. [Source]
Despite its current setbacks, the gender-equality movement in China has made some lasting progress in certain domains over the past few decades. Li Jun at the Made in China Journal recently published an article outlining some of the ways that the feminist movement has influenced journalism and the media in China:
Twenty years ago, few journalists or readers could have anticipated the seismic shifts in Chinese journalism we see today. The once-dominant high-profile male journalists and opinion leaders have largely faded from the scene, while women now make up more than half of the journalistic workforce in China. Reporting on gender-based violence has become mainstream, and young women have emerged as the benchmark for journalism’s public role measured in terms of serving both ‘the public interest’ and ‘the interest of the public’. Meanwhile, media outlets frequently find themselves at the centre of public controversies over their stance on gender equality and women’s rights. The evolving relationship between feminism and the media stems not only from generational differences in feminist movements and their interactions with the state, but also from the profound influence of feminist movements on audiences and the journalistic community. [Source]
The arc of these movements in China can be seen through the life of certain individuals. Last month, Li Xiaojiang (李小江), a pioneer of women’s studies in China, passed away from breast cancer. CDT Chinese highlighted a recent issue of Diyin (低音) about Li’s life, noting her contributions to gender-related theory and movements in post-Mao China. Li was reportedly invited by the Women’s Federation to participate in the NGO Forum on the side of the Beijing conference, but she declined (perhaps due to her skeptical attitude towards power). Commenting on the role of the conference at that period in China’s history, Li said, “Given the unfavorable political and economic conditions at the time, women’s liberation was the only positive card left for China to play, one that would meet with global approval and recognition. For this reason, women’s issues very quickly became a topic of national importance.”
CDT Chinese also featured a recent WeChat article about Taiwanese scholar Rachel Hui-Chi Hsu’s (许慧琦) book “Nora in China: The Shaping and Evolution of New Female Images, 1900-1930s.” Nora is the main character in Norwegian author Henrik Ibsen’s influential feminist play, “A Doll’s House,” about a married woman’s pursuit of self-fulfillment in a stereotypically gendered world. The play was first translated into Chinese in 1918, on the cusp of the May Fourth Movement, and its dissemination in China over the subsequent decades was part of a process of repeated reinterpretation and reconstruction. Hsu traces the evolution of Nora’s image and shows how it was frequently dominated and distorted to serve certain patriarchal political agendas.
