Empowering Chinese Women's Legal Rights

Ma Yinan, a professor of the Law School at Peking University [Women of China]

Ma Yinan, a leading legal professor at Peking University, has ascribed the many years she has spent studying women and laws to her early participation in the Fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing in 1995.

"The Conference helped me learn some basic concepts and ideas about women's rights and laws such as gender equality, gender discrimination and feminist law. Since then, the issue of women and legislation has attracted me like a powerful magnet," said Ma, also vice-chairperson of the China Marriage and Family Law Society.

Gains from and Impressions of World Conference on Women in Beijing

In the late 1980s, Ma was involved in the research and drafting of relevant legislation for China's Law on the Protection of Rights and Interests of Women.

In November 1994, she attended the Asia-Pacific NGO Women and Development Forum held in Manila, which was a preliminary conference for the Fourth World Conference on Women, and from which she learned about many relevant topics for discussion in advance.

Meanwhile, Ma found foreign non-governmental organization forums different from those in her home country—particularly in terms of the topics, ways of thinking and how they were organized.

"Foreign women's organizations are concerned about problems—what problems you have and what solutions you figure out. They have a very strong sense of problems. That was my feeling and it became stronger at the World Conference on Women," said Ma.

"What I learned at the conference broadened my horizon," she continued. "It also enabled Chinese women and those engaged in women's studies and women's rights protection to learn some effective theories and measures for promoting women's development."

Ma admitted that before attending the conference, she had been engaged in safeguarding women's rights and interests just from the viewpoint of the rule of law and gender equality, but was clueless to see laws from the perspective of feminism or gender concepts.

"The conference brought some Western feminist and human rights views for us to learn from," said Ma.

Ma Yinan attends the NGO Forum on Women of the Fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing in 1995. [Women of China]

More Women Students Recruited in Law School

Over the past two decades, feminist legal thinking has made Ma to examine the legal system, culture and phenomena from a fresh critical angle.  Meanwhile, she has imparted the theories and measures she learned from the conference to her students and witnessed the changes in the female students she teaches at her university's law school.

"When I was admitted to study law at Peking University in 1979, female students only accounted for one quarter of all students of the faculty. Their proportion was less than one half 20 years ago but now females make up more than two thirds," said Ma. "With the increase of female law graduates, the school has sent more women to become engaged in legal occupation, who are changing the gender structure of the profession."

"Nowadays, a great many female law graduates have developed into outstanding talents in legal practice and research," she continued. "For example, Huang Ermei, one of my female students, is now vice-president of the Supreme People's Court, and another student, Guo Jianmei, is an acclaimed public-interest lawyer."

"Their outstanding achievements have won social advantages for women in the legal occupation and have convinced their male teachers and male peers. Nowadays, I hardly ever hear remarks that doubt women's ability to study law professionally," added Ma.

Concerns about Women's Role in Legislative Process

While shaking up the male monopoly on legal resources, women's engagement in the legal framework has integrated more feminine traits into the legal construction of gender equality, she said.

From the 1990s, Ma was invited to draft the Law on the Protection of Rights and Interests of Women, the Marriage Law and the Population and Family Planning Law. She also began to examine laws from a feminist perspective.

She was surprised to find that women had few opportunities to work in the legislative body and that few proposals by women could become national laws through legislative procedures. Many new suggestions for laws by women deputies to the National People's Congress lacked the perspective of gender equality and failed to reflect women's real appeals and voices.

"In the past, we thought laws were neutral and objective without gender preference, but it turned out differently if we examined them from the feminist angle," said Ma. "In an investigation, we found some legislative acts, which aimed to protect women or get citizens to abide by gender equality, failed to produce the expected social effects, and law enforcement agencies might exert different efforts to different sexes."

Ma Yinan attends the 11th National Women's Congress of China held in Beijing in 2013. [Women of China]

"The investigation has opened a new window for legal research and judicial practice, and offered an important analytical standpoint," she concluded. Over time, Ma has been committed to examining the relationship between women and laws. Her work has been on issues including how current laws have explicit or implicit gender discrimination, and how gender factors impact on legislature and judicature, especially what results legislation have in practice among those that aim to protect women and whether the implementation has achieved the expected effect.

Efforts in Gender Equality Assessment

In 2013, Ma was elected to be a member of the 11th Executive Committee of the All-China Women's Federation (ACWF) and also held a concurrent post as vice-president of the Beijing Women's Federation. She has, since then, begun combining her legal research with work in women's federations.

"I serve as an expert for Beijing's and Jiangsu Province's assessment committees on gender equality in laws and policies. At present, we are formulating a gender equality assessment guide for Beijing. It will help make a judgment on the formulation, implementation and effect of laws and policies to evaluate whether they will have direct or indirect effects on women and men, and thus will help us adjust polices and regulations to eliminate different gender discrimination," said Ma.

Ma stated that the research on women and laws has made her understand the role that theoretical studies play in building the legal system, and these changes should be directly attributed to the impact of the Beijing Conference 20 years ago.

"During the past two decades, I have devoted much effort and energy to the field of women and laws. On reflection, what I gained is much more than I contributed," she concluded.

(Women of China)