Abstract:

Thirty years after the landmark 1995 Beijing World Conference on Women, China is set to reignite global momentum for women’s empowerment later this year with the upcoming Global Leaders’ Meeting on Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment. In this talk, Dr. Jiang examines one of the 1995 Conference’s most enduring legacies—gender quotas—tracing their adoption, evolution, and implementation in Chinese politics in the past three decades. Drawing on fieldwork data from local Organization Departments, Women’s Federations, and People’s Congresses, as well as cadre appointment records, her research reveals that while subnational adoption of gender quotas has been progressed steadily, their implementation varies significantly—and in some cases, has produced unintended long-term constraints on women’s descriptive representation.

Speaker’s Bio:

Xinhui Jiang is Assistant Professor of Political Science at Nanjing University, and her research focuses on gender and politics, legislative studies, and interjurisdictional relations in China. Her work has appeared on Government and Opposition, The China Quarterly, Regional Studies, Politics & Gender, and Journal of Contemporary China, among others. Dr. Jiang earned her PhD in Political Science and International Relations from the University of Delaware. Before joining Nanjing University, she was a Postdoctoral Researcher at Freie University Berlin’s Institute of Chinese Studies.