26/11/2019
While some progress has been achieved towards reaching gender equality and improvement of women’s status, gender-based inequalities continue to exist. Among these inequalities, underrepresentation of women and their interests is prominent. As there are consistent political, social and cultural differences between different contexts, definitions and strategies of representing women and their interests vary. Concerning China, on the one hand, the country has received positive remarks for acknowledging women’s issue as a political and social problem which requires state inventions (Molyneux, 1981; Howell, 1996). On the other hand, the Chinese practice of pursuing gender equality is strongly challenged, especially for being structured in a ‘top-down’ way and for its tendency to subordinate gender interests to national priorities. As for Europe, several affirmative actions, such as gender quotas and gender mainstreaming, have been applied in several countries. Criticized rightly that there is no guarantee between the number of women in the public offices and the improvements of women’s substantive representation, these affirmative actions nevertheless have been seen as a positive influence on women’s involvement in politics. At this one-day workshop, researchers specialize in women’s representation in China and Belgium meet to exchange their research findings and reflect on the legacies and challenges in each case.
The workshop is open after registration:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfV5x_DWk5LOyosKzBD3s4qK50t4tTApOB2kDv7gPZPvu7_-Q/viewform?usp=sf_link
Monday 09/12 2019, from 10:00 - 18:00
Room Rome (-1 floor), Pleinlaan 5, VUB
Programme:
10 a.m. - 10:45 a.m. Registration & Opening
10:45 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. A lecture by Prof. Xueping ZHONG, Tufts University, USA
Class characteristics of China’s Women’s liberation and 21st-century Feminism
1:30 p.m. - 4 p.m. PhDs research
• Sheng ZHANG, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China
Maintaining the Relationship between the Government and Women
—— the All-China Women's Federation's Participation in Public Policy Making
• Jiahui SHAN, Vrije Universiteit Brussels, Belgium
The representative claim made by the Women’s Federation
• Sarah Pauwels, Vrije Universiteit Brussels, Belgium
Political role models for overcoming women’s underrepresentation in politics in Flanders and Brussels
4:15 p.m. - 5 p.m. Round table
5 p.m. - 6 p.m. Reception