Women have limited representation and voice across the top echelons of China’s political system, said US-China Economic and Security Review Commission in a report.
According to United Nations data from 2021, China’s population comprises approximately 703.8 million females and 740.4 million males. Although they represent roughly 48.7 per cent of the population, women occupy less than 8 per cent of senior leadership positions.
The US review commission report said the absence of diversity is noteworthy given the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leadership’s stated commitment to equal opportunity.
The absence of women in Party leadership parallels low female representation within the group of Chinese nationals holding leadership positions in international organizations. Of the 31 Chinese nationals serving in top leadership positions in key international organizations, only 4 are women, according to the report.
Women make up almost half of China’s 1.4 billion population. Of the approximately 92 million CCP members, there are about 28 million women or roughly 30 per cent of the CCP’s total. Further, the report said women have limited representation and voice across the top echelons of China’s political system.
Historically, female representatives have rarely constituted more than 10 per cent of the roughly 300-member CCP Central Committee. Only six women have ever served in the 25-member Politburo, and three of those were wives of other top leaders.
According to the review commission, no woman has ever served on the Politburo Standing Committee or held any of the top three positions in China’s political system: CCP General Secretary, Chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), and State President.
Female representation in key government roles such as ministries and provincial governorships is also extremely low.
The percentage of People’s Liberation Army (PLA) servicemembers who are female is not publicly available, but China Military Online, an official publication of the PLA, estimated in 2015 that approximately 5 per cent or less are women.
Currently, no women hold senior command or political commissar positions. The highest rank a woman in the PLA has ever achieved is Lieutenant General, with one woman promoted to Lieutenant General in 1993 and a second in 2010.