All-China Women’s Federation and women's NGOs' activities in PRC in 2013-2019: a comparative analysis

Since the 1950s, the concept of state feminism has been actively implemented in the PRC with the state improving women’s lives, protecting their rights and opportunities, while NGOs play a secondary role. Since the advent of the Xi Jinping era in 2013, the State Council of the PRC initiated a series of reforms and laws aimed at restructuring mass organizations and strengthening control over non-governmental organizations. This bachelor thesis studies how new reforms affect the women's movement in the PRC, as well as the largest non-governmental organization created by the Party, the All-China Women's Federation. The work consists of the analysis of the articles about NGOs in China, the official website of the AWCF, the statements of Chairman Xi Jinping, the content of the adopted laws, as well as the statistics on the laws’ compliance. In the state feminism framework, the state support programs, social promotion of equality are used as instruments for protecting women's rights, as well as such new laws as the 2016 ‘Anti-Domestic Violence Law’. The analysis has shown that some laws, such as the ‘Charity Law’ and the ‘Overseas NGOs Law’ negatively affected women's NGOs’ activities, and women's activism. The restructuring of the AWCF also had an impact on the status of women, as the trajectory of the statements of both the leader of the country and the organization itself changed towards the importance of family life and the maintenance of the traditional way of family life. The number of women's NGOs in China has also been rapidly decreasing due to the registration difficulties introduced by new laws and the inability to obtain mandatory government approval. The CPC’s focus on the state feminism in China deprives independent feminists of the opportunity to carry out independent activities supported by local and foreign NGOs, leaving them with the ACWF as the only way to promote their rights.