International Women’s Day, Professor Louise Edwards reminded us on 8 March at Glover Cottages, began in the United States in 1908. It was later adopted by the Chinese May 4th Movement. Equality and modernity for women were advocated by successive leaderships in China, including by the leaders of the Long March and by the PRC after 1949. Since then, China had passed many laws relating to women, most recently on 1 March when the conciliation approach adopted by police for many years to ‘family violence’ was replaced by a requirement to prosecute, try and penalise offenders. Attacks on women have been widely committed not only by husbands and fathers but by mothers-in-law. Assaults on old people are another major concern.

The Chinese government, seeking to create a ‘harmonious society’, wants to stamp out such violence. Louise admitted that making laws is different from enforcing them, and several problems remain. She recalled the reluctance of the Women’s Committee of the PRC to become involved in domestic matters, the official crackdown on feminist activism in 2015, the current absence of discussion of rape in marriage, and the pretence that homosexuality does not exist. She deplored the cult of Confucius. But she said the ABC and other media had misreported these issues, implying that Chinese women are more oppressed than women in the West. In fact, China is now one of the better countries to be born female – even if the traditional preference for boys persists, and the one-child policy is widely and expensively flouted in order to have a son.

Seeking to place China in a global context, Dr Alison Broinowski noted the particular failure of sub-Sahara African countries to meet Millennium Development Goals 3, 4, and 5 for women and children, relating this to the dire effect on them of violence in their families and communities. Turning to Australia, she cited shocking current statistics on violence against women, and the cutting back of refuges for them and their children. Louise observed that China does not interfere in other countries’ affairs, even where Chinese are active officially or commercially. There are ‘shelters’ for women in China, though they are insufficient, as in Australia, to meet the need. A member asked: ‘What can we learn from China?’ – a novel question for some in the audience.

Report prepared by Dr Alison Broinowski