Understanding the Effects of Capitalism and Socialism on Gender Inequality

Since 1848, the Women’s Right Movement has marked the beginning of gender equality advocacy. “The
Women Question” has been an intellectual discussion and debate ever since. Women have been exposed
to systemic segregation, and the economic systems are significant contributors to systemic segregation.
However, in different societies, gender equality has been varyingly understood, and in recent years,
scholars have come to conclude that the root of gender equality is more complex than economic systems:
socialism and capitalism. Specifically, the effects of the economical systems can be understood only
subject to the limitations imposed by the cultural and political factors, and social and institutional
contexts. Hence, in order to better compare the effects of socialism and capitalism on gender equality, this
paper analyzes the two systems by focusing on the market transition from the socialist market to the free
market in China as a social and institutional context.

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the introduction of economic and political reforms in China resulted in
the market transition from “the poor socialist state-controlled market” to “the market-oriented and
globally-integrated market”, similar to the capitalist market in the West, becoming the world’s second
largest economy. In addition to the economic consequences of the reform, the transition has also been
accompanied by significant change and impact on the progress towards gender equality. Our analytical
framework is to break down the social sphere into the private and public spheres. This structural
separation of the two spheres will help us understand the gender equality of both the social market, and
the private markets in China.

First of all, in the socialist market, the public sphere would be referred to as the state’s interest, and the
private would be referred to as the individual’s family. In the socialist state, China’s Communist Party
promotes class identity over gender identity to create a classless society. In contrast to the traditional
norms, women were encouraged to not stay home but to participate in the public sphere: the labor force
for the new socialist nation. There are some important steps taken as a socialist nation towards gender
equality aligned with Marxist ideologies as follows. In the Origins of the Family, Private Property, and the
State, Engels quoted that the first premise for the emancipation of women is the reintroduction of the
entire female sex into public industry; and that this again demands that the quality possessed by the
individual family of being the economic unit of society be abolished. By abolishing the nuclear family
structure and replacing it with a socialist communal structure, Marx and Engels believed that women
would be able to achieve equality through equal distribution of resources and opportunities to the
individuals. In accordance with this socialist ideology, the state also establishes the danwei system: a
system in which each work unit contained a specific group of people engaged in a particular type of work,
and it was responsible for providing housing, health care, child care, and other social services for its
employees. Danwei promotes gender equality by transforming some traditional household responsibilities
for women into social services. Providing social welfare and facilities such as child care and healthcare
centers, it alleviates the women’s housework burden and liberates women through social production. The
state also enacts marriage laws that give women equality in both divorce and marriage. This promotion
contributes to gender equality by opening up opportunities for women in the workforce, and alleviating
traditional patriarchal family structure. Chinese women’s employment rates under socialism were one of
the highest in the world and gender wage gaps were low.

However, utilitarian tool. Gender insensitive. Still gendered in private. Particular difficulties.
#First of all, through an economically-oriented lens without social and historical context,