Organizer: Kerstin Katharina Vogel, Trier University, Germany
Chair: Joyce Gelb, City University of New York
Discussant: Ellen Judd, University of Manitoba
Although East Asia is often perceived as one cultural sphere sharing common features broadly influenced by Confucianism, it simultaneously comprises both a variety of political systems and different models of development.
On the core of processes of change are dynamic power and gender relations. Literature reviews on this topic reveal an astonishing lack of theoretical approaches to the phenomenon of power in politics and society viewed through gender lenses. While most of the studies basically deal with the physical presence of women in political institutions, this panel aims at reconciling theoretical reflections with more empirical-oriented studies. Mainstream concepts of power used in Social Sciences for East Asia prove to be inadequate for dealing with social realities for two reasons: First, they display a critical degree of gender-blindness and secondly, originating in Western Sciences they often do not take in account local diversities. We therefore propose to deconstruct common notions of power and instead attempt to develop multi-dimensional perspectives. This implies looking for the hidden "narratives" and continuities not only in each case-study but also in a comparative perspective. Furthermore, we will widen the general perspective by also addressing to informal and non-institutional forms of power on different levels of political systems. In order to provide the base for the following presentations and discussion, chairwoman Joyce Gelb will start by giving a brief introduction to the umbrella concepts of power and gender. The following case-studies for China, Hong Kong, Japan, and South Korea will reveal both universal and idiosyncratic features of gendered notions of power and politics.
Sabine Jakobi, University of Trier
This paper examines the different roles and positions of women in various decision-making processes in villages of Central China, particularly in Henan province. I will discuss how traditional notions of power and gender interact with socialist modes of production and the Communist Party’s way of engineering rural society. Next the paper addresses contemporary processes such as the return to family-based production and the so-called rural democratization and their effects on women. Although studies reveal a consistent under-representation of women in formal decision-making structures, the paper aims at demonstrating that nevertheless women’s visible and invisible participation in different realms of rural society such as economy and community life is crucial for the survival of the political system and for the maintenance of party control over villages. However, women’s participation at the same time also poses new challenges to the political system. By applying different formal and informal goal-oriented strategies to influence policy implementation, women are like men agents in an on-going process of change and actively pursue their goals which sometimes conflict with the ones articulated by the party-state. With the redefinition of the private and the public sphere in the on-going process of development, new avenues for both women and men are opened. Within a still male-dominated village polity and economy, women take a lead in redefining prevailing notions of gender and thus will play a greater role in future village politics.
Lisa Fischler, University of Wisconsin, Madison
In counterpoint to official claims of women’s representation in positions of power, there are women’s groups in Hong Kong who insisted that "grassroots" women, not those in formal politics, were the important group to look at in order to judge the results of change in the two decades prior to the territory’s 1997 handover. It is this paper’s contention that these viewpoints demonstrate two different meanings to politics in Hong Kong which will have ramifications for the development of the now Special Administrative Region (SAR) over the next several years. Such development includes how much official and unofficial consideration will be given to women’s rights. By looking at selected activities, writings, and conversations of two different coalitions of women’s groups in Hong Kong during the three years prior to the handover (1994–1997), this study applies the lens of women’s experience to the divisions of class, ethnicity and gender which permeate Hong Kong. These divisions will be as much a part of women’s experience under the PRC government as they were under British colonialism; however, the meanings associated with these divisions, and therefore the realities for women, will, no doubt, continue to change. One major reason for this is that there has been a shift in who holds power. Yet, underlying the transfer of power ("sovereignty" in the words of the 1984 Joint Declaration) are corresponding struggles for which groups in society will be advantaged by the return to China. Such struggles supported this study’s examination of contested meanings of notions of gender and politics which arose during Hong Kong’s transition. Which meanings will dominate in post-colonial Hong Kong, how the fight for women’s benefits will fare, and what the ramifications are for Hong Kong politics, can be answered, in part, by looking at what took place in the decade prior to the 1997 handover.
Kerstin Katharina Vogel, Trier University
Looking for women in Japanese politics seems like searching for a needle in a hay stack, as Japanese women are extremely underrepresented in the Diet and other political institutions. Applying traditional theoretical concepts of power and politics, Japanese women have no power. By trying to redefine the meanings of power and politics this paper intends to locate places and situations where women exert power in political decision-making processes. Next the paper will demonstrate the diversities of power structures which emerge if we move away from the classical dichotomy of private and public sphere. Within this dichotomy power is assigned to the public (male) sphere. On the contrary, the private is conceived as a (female) realm without power. If politics are not exclusively linked to the institutional and public level which comprises the Diet, regional and local assemblies and political parties, we will discover new locations of women’s power. This paper is based on interviews with female Japanese politicians and therefore includes various female perspectives on power and politics. It will focus on women as agents in processes of (re-)shaping and (re-)structuring political life on three different levels. These levels can be differentiated according to their degree of institutionalization. The first one comprises for instance political parties, the second one grassroots movements and on the third level we find groups in between such as the political branch of the consumers’ movement. By combining these multi-dimensional perspectives a more comprehensive image of women’s roles and positions in Japanese political life will evolve.
Bong-Scuk Sohn, Center for Korean Women and Politics
Democracy can be defined as politics in which the various groups of the people enjoy fair shares in power and decision-making. A democratic polity should allow different groups of people to articulate their interests and aggregate them through political organizations and parties. The electoral freedom and competition need to be respected so that spokesmen of various groups can find their places in government through popular voting. Accepting such definitions for democracy, one ought to raise such questions as how successful are different groups in society in sending their representatives to the National Assembly and how actively can they advance their (or their client’s) opinions in the political arena? Does democracy allow more groups, especially those who were formerly denied to share the power, to share the responsibility and equally participate in politics?
Korean society had strong traces of bureaucratic authoritarianism. But in the course of and due to rapid industrialization, urbanization and improvement in education, various new social forces have emerged, demanding substantial changes. Despite the presence of political parties and elections, it has been true that workers, farmers, the poor, progressive intellectuals and women have been deprived of equal opportunity to participate in the political system. As the democratization process goes on in recent years, it is natural that these groups demand more equal share of power and responsibility.
Women’s participation in politics has been minimal in Korea, and the role of women in politics has been extremely limited. For example, women have secured only three percent of the total seats in the National Assembly. First, I will examine how Korean politics in the past have been systematically biased against women in holding public offices and sharing the power. The question will be examined by analyzing to what extent women in Korea today are involved in political activities in different spheres, namely the legislative branch, the executive branch, and the local assemblies. Then, I will explore the main reasons for women’s low rates of political participation by referring to the problems of socio-political structure and system, and to the socio-cultural characteristics that are unique to Korea. Lastly, I will argue that improving women’s political participation is an important task of national development and democratic reform. In this respect, I will consider what kinds of positive efforts we can expect from an increased level of political representation and participation of women.