About the difference between men and women

Reflections on the present situation of gender inequality

The root causes of women's oppression and gender inequality

As we all know, women are oppressed and gender inequality is a common phenomenon in class society, which is mainly caused by private property ownership and unequal social division of labor, including gender division of labor. Different social division of labor determines the different status and role of men and women in social production, and also forms a set of value judgment system, which is that men dominate the outside and women dominate the inside, men are superior to women, men are superior to women, men are inferior to women, and men are superior to women. Therefore, whether politically or academically, we have always regarded the abolition of private ownership of the means of production and the realization of gender equality in the legislative field as the basic goal of women's liberation.

Socialist society has eliminated the root of women's oppression-private ownership and the basis of class oppression and gender oppression, thus overcoming the fundamental contradiction in the field of gender relations. However, on the basis of the fundamental consistency of people's interests in socialist society, there are still gender contradictions and gender inequality. Although this problem is no longer antagonistic, there is no doubt that we still face a long way to solve contradictions and narrow the social status difference between men and women. Specifically, women's issues in the primary stage of socialism have the following characteristics:

First, the inequality between men and women in socialist society is a contradiction based on the fundamental consistency of people's interests; From the origin, it is a problem left by private ownership, and we can't solve it at once; There are both heredity and variability in the form of expression, and the problem of gender inequality will present some new forms and models. Under the condition of socialist market economy, this variability will be more obvious;

Second, the unequal distance between men and women in socialist society tends to disappear in the development trend, but in the process of disappearance, there will be repetition or even retrogression;

Third, the socialist society has the ability to adjust the contradictions in the field of gender relations.

The causes of inequality between men and women still exist in socialist society.

Market economy has two pillars, one is social division of labor, and the other is ownership difference. Under the background of socialist market economy, different ownership and social division of labor still exist, which is still an important factor restricting human inequality, including gender inequality. In addition, the traditional social ideology has also contributed to the inequality between men and women, and the imperfect social system has also made the inequality between men and women face certain institutional and institutional obstacles. The specific reasons are as follows:

First, it is impossible for a socialist society to completely solve the problem of ownership.

In our country, even in the planned economy period, the ownership of our country is not a single ownership by the whole people. In cities, there is also collective ownership and a small amount of individual ownership. In rural areas, collective ownership has always been the mainstream, leaving some space for families to use and dominate land in the form of private plots. This diversity of ownership has been greatly developed in the period of market economy. Under the background that the possession, use, control, operation and management of the means of production can be relatively separated, women's power and participation in these fields are still not as good as men's. Although the monopoly position of men in the enjoyment and domination of resources has been loosened, fundamentally speaking, the pattern of possession and domination leaning towards men has not been fundamentally reversed. According to statistics, women are in a more disadvantaged position, and the income gap between men and women is obviously widened compared with the planned economy period.

Second, in line with the relatively backward level of productivity development, the mode of division of labor in the field of social division of labor in China has not been fundamentally changed.

During the planned economy period, the state took some measures to curb the inequality between men and women in the field of division of labor, so as to narrow the gender distance of division of labor and the resulting social status gap between men and women. These measures have been effective, and some achievements have been made in women's employment coverage and employment quality. However, in the market economy period, although the socialist system fundamentally controlled the social division of labor to change in a direction that was unfavorable to women and widened the gap between the rich and the poor, with the weakening of the government's resource allocation function and the enhancement of the market's spontaneous adjustment function, the inequality between men and women in the field of social division of labor continued to expand in a certain range. In addition, the wave of international economic globalization echoes the new high-tech wave, which not only strengthens the fierce competition among countries, regions and nations, but also strengthens the competition and exclusion between genders in practice. This kind of competition transcends national boundaries, ignores the principle of humanism, and ignores the inconsistency of the starting point of competition between men and women, which makes women's development encounter unprecedented challenges, even reverses the trend of women's occupation infiltrating to a high level during the planned economy period, exacerbates the difficulty of women's employment, widens the income gap between men and women, and forms gender occupational segregation. The difficulty is that the characteristics of the market economy acquiesce in these gaps and step on these gaps to expand their sphere of influence. This trend will grow with the market economy, and the advanced socialist system can only restrain this trend. The restraining effect of the system is limited and gradual, which determines that the inequality between men and women will exist for a long time and show some complexity in the period of socialist market economy.

Thirdly, the distribution pattern with distribution according to work as the main body and multiple modes of distribution coexisting will also have corresponding resistance to the improvement of women's status.

The trend of social development shows that the higher the level of knowledge, the more obvious the intangible tendency of property and the stronger the role of distribution in the field of production relations. In modern society, science and technology and personal ability have become the primary conditions for wealth accumulation. In other words, the more the economy develops, the closer the relationship between individual ability and distribution. Today, when innovation and personality development are advocated, the role of ownership in distribution tends to weaken as a whole. However, in the period of market economy, factors of production such as capital, technology and management still participate in distribution. In this context, although women are not inherently weaker than men in personal ability, their historical disadvantages in resources and technology cannot be improved in a short time. It must be admitted that due to the influence of education and social concepts, the potential development of women is still far lower than that of men, and the resulting weakness of women's ability cannot be completely improved in a short time, which will inevitably affect the allocation of resources, resulting in a chain of resource allocation-technological capacity growth-women's development. In order to change this unhealthy trend and achieve equality between men and women, the distribution of social wealth needs to be tilted towards women, which is an important issue that the state needs to consider when formulating policies.

Fourth, decadent feudal ideas, including traditional gender concepts, are still cultural obstacles affecting the process of equality between men and women at this stage.

There are many essences in China's national culture, which can be upgraded to modern concepts through refining and processing. However, there are also many dregs with strong regenerative power, which will evolve into various modern viruses and undermine the system of equality between men and women.

Fifth, the imperfection of social system and policy is also an important factor affecting women's development.

After the founding of People's Republic of China (PRC), although the equality between men and women became the constitutional principle of the country in due course and was incorporated into the fundamental law, the original legal system can no longer meet the needs of the times in terms of social needs. For example, in the legal system of equality between men and women in China, conflicts between laws and lax administration of justice and law still exist, and some legal provisions have changed over time and need to be revised. These problems not only affect the role of law in regulating gender relations, but also hinder the process of gender equality to some extent. In addition, the backward and unbalanced development level of productive forces in China at this stage also has great constraints on improving gender equality and promoting women's development.

In this context, to promote the cause of equality between men and women, we must first intensify the propaganda of Marxist views on women, criticize feudal gender concepts, and strive to build advanced gender culture in the process of building advanced culture; Secondly, vigorously promote the construction of social and political civilization, continue to play the role of the socialist system in promoting women's liberation, improve women's political participation, and effectively incorporate the principle of equality between men and women into the rule of law system. At the same time, in the process of system construction and improvement, in the process of social security system construction, priority should be given to women's interests, so that the distribution of resources and power is moderately inclined to women. Third, to comprehensively improve women's education level and promote the growth of women's ability, we should mobilize and guide women to improve their own ability in the process of building economy, politics and culture with Chinese characteristics, actively participate in social, economic, political and cultural undertakings, and strive for progress, equality and development through participation.