Gender and Chinese Development: Towards an Equitable Society

The rise of China’s economy is well chronicled. The common perception is that the government’s liberal market reforms have achieved substantial growth rates and have aided a great leap towards becoming one of the major economic powers of the world. However, in the most recent joint report on the World Bank’s Millennium Development Goals, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the United Nations System in China observed that while China was on track with many of the indicators for implementation, problems of inequality persist, with gender gaps developing and women falling behind men in a great number of respects. This book takes a look behind the surface of miracle growth , to explore the political economy of this process. Beyond the superficial macroeconomic indicators of high growth rates, increasing GDP per capita; high trade volume, etc., the book aims to look at what is happening to the very socioeconomic and political fabric of society; particularly in terms of the transformation of gender relations.