— Taking the Amendment of the Law on the Protection of Women’s Rights and Interests as an Opportunity

 

CAO Weiwei*

 

Abstract: The Law on the Protection of Women’s Rights and Interests has been amended twice since it was promulgated 1992, and it has formed a relatively complete legislation system together with relevant laws and regulations, accumulating experience of judicial application in practice. In the current proposed amendment of the Law on the Protection of Women’s Rights and Interests, the main issues that should be considered are: First, the legislative purpose of this law should be reviewed to clarify the three legislative positions of the Law on Women’s Rights and Interests, in terms of protection, practice and foundation. Second, it is necessary to grasp whether the text content is appropriate and rectify any defects in the existing text. Third, it should explore how to reform and implement specific systems from the micro perspective to improve the specific systems of women’s personal, property, and social rights and interests. Fourth, it should strengthen the systematic interaction with other norms at different levels and implement the principle of gender equality stipulated in the Constitution of the People’s Republic of China. Fifth, attention should be paid to the necessity of invoking the Law in judicial practice, the possibility of operation and the effectiveness of enforcement. The proposed amendment of the Law on the Protection of Women’s Rights and Interests should also sum up the experience of local legislation and judicial decisions and improve the quality of judicial application of the law so that is truly responds to the practical needs and challenges of the protection of women’s rights and interests and the implementation of gender equality in the new era.

 

Keywords: protecting women’s rights and interests · Law on the Protection of Women’s Rights and Interests · legislation system · amendment of the law

 

 

The Law on the Protection of Women’s Rights and Interests (hereinafter referred to as the Women’s Law)¹ came into being in response to international commitments and domestic demands.² Since its promulgation in 1992, the law has witnessed two major amendments. This law, together with related laws and regulations, has formed a legal system for protecting women’s rights and interests, with the as the foundation and the Women’s Law as the principal part, coordinating related laws and regulations.³ This legislative system provides an institutional guarantee for fighting for women s legitimate rights and interests, promoting gender equality, and guiding local legislation and judicial relief. However, due to the limitations of legislative capability and the differences in the situation at that time, there were urgent problems that need to be solved regarding the Women’s Law, such as unclear positioning, unclear internal and external systems, vague definitions of concepts, weak system operability, and difficulty in meeting immediate needs. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, China has made historic achievements in the protection of women’s rights and interests,⁴ and the rule of law has entered a new era. Amendments to the Constitution have reaffirmed the basic state policy of gender equality. Amendments to the Criminal Law have further enhanced the fight against crimes against women, especially girls. The implementation of the Anti-Domestic Violence Law has strengthened legal protection and relief for women, a major group of victims of violence. The Population and Family Planning Law (hereinafter referred to as the Family Planning Law) has introduced the “universal three-child” policy, laying the foundation for building a child-friendly legal system. The promulgation of the Civil Code updated important content regarding the protection of women’s rights and interests, such as personal and property rights, and added two new cases of disputes over the right to equal employment and disputes over sexual harassment and infringement under Personality Rights. The Fourth Plenary Session of the 19th Central Committee of the CPC called for adherence to and improvement of the systems and mechanisms for promoting gender equality and women’s all-around development, setting forth new tasks for improving the Women’s Law.⁵

 

New situations and problems have also emerged in protecting women’s rights and interests, such as gender discrimination in employment and more onerous housework after more children are allowed, women’s rights and interests in the confirmation of rural land rights, and marital property and debt disputes with the diversification of family property. These problems have brought new challenges to the amendment of the Women’s Law. Especially under the dual dilemma of low fertility rate and low fertility intention during the population transition period,⁶ the population policy of China has changed from “control-based” to “service-based,” which aims to create a fertility-friendly society for citizens.⁷ In the meantime, however, the increasing cost of fertility and the traditional social division of labor make women of childbearing age face the double pressure of the “motherhood penalty”⁸ and employment discrimination. The existing content on family planning in the Women’s Law is no longer in line with the universal three-child policy. The global gender pay gap has widened as economic growth has slowed in the context of the pandemic.⁹ Despite the rapid and efficient stabilization of the pandemic and society in China, the protection of women’s employment rights and interests urgently needs to be strengthened considering the impact of the overall environment. Problems such as gender restriction in recruitment and promotion and sexual harassment in the workplace are on the rise. The four propositions¹⁰ made by Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Commitee at the High-Level Meeting on the 25th Anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing not only provide new opportunities for addressing the new demands on the development of Chinese women but also implements China’s commitments to international initiatives.¹¹ Meanwhile, China’s legal system has become more and more complicated and detailed over the past two decades, and will maintain this legislative trend in the future.¹² The amendment of the Women’s Law also needs to change the legislative concept to be rough-and-ready rather than be detailed at the beginning of drafting. We should resolve the dilemma that many rights and interests are not properly guaranteed by the system, and make detailed amendments to legislation. First, the positioning, structure and system of this law should be reexamined. Second, the connection, integration and interaction with other relevant laws and regulations, especially with the Civil Code, Anti-Domestic Violence Law, Special Rules on the Labor Protection of Female Employees (the “Special Rules”) and other laws and regulations, should be considered. Finally, break the limitation that the Women’s Law still has only an advocacy function, and pay attention to the necessity of invocation, the possibility of operation, and the effectiveness of enforcement in judicial practice after the amendment of this law. Specifically, the opportunities from amendment can be grasped from the following five dimensions: First, clarifying the legislative purpose and positioning of the Women’s Law. Second, judging whether the text structure is appropriate from a macro perspective. Third, deciding how to reform and implement the specific system at the micro level. Fourth, considering how to systemically interact with other norms of different levels. Fifth, considering how to standardize judicial application after revising the law. How much emphasis has been put on the protection of women’s rights and interests is a key evaluation indicator for a country’s human rights protection and an important benchmark for observing its social ecology. It is also a genuine response to the real needs of the people. It is of great practical value and highly relevant to our times to strengthen the institutional guarantee through the refined legislation of the Women’s Law.

 

 

 

The Law on the Protection of Women’s Rights and Interests is divided into broad and narrow senses in academic circles. In the broad sense, it covers the sum of the textual norms that protect the legitimate rights and interests of women in different ranks and different legal departments, while in the narrow sense, it only refers to Women’s Law.¹³ The Women’s Law breaks through the “wall“ between the legal system and legal research, stands outside the traditional dichotomous system of public law and private law, and covers the cross-sector legal network for the protection of women’s rights and interests. Since its promulgation, there have been the following five different views on the attributes of its legal department. First, the“non-attribution theory,” which believes that such laws targeting the rights and interests of specific vulnerable groups have unique legislative spirit and legislative objectives, but can hardly belong to any specific legal department.¹⁴ Second, the “constitutional law/document theory,” which believes that the basic rights and freedoms of women in all fields are guaranteed, among which reproductive rights, the right to education and political rights are directly related to the basic civil rights guaranteed by the Constitution. So it is a relevant law of the Constitution¹⁵ and has all the characteristics of constitutional laws.¹⁶ Third, the “private law theory,” which believes that it is similar to laws like the Law on the Protection of Consumer Rights and Interests and the Law on Promotion of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises, which are pieces of legislation that provide preferential protection for the identity and interests of groups in privacy laws.¹⁷ Fourth, is the “theory of human rights protection law.”¹⁸ The reason is that the Women,s Law has the attributes of human rights protection and the special political color of changing the relationship between the two sexes. Fifth, the “social law theory.” After the socialist legal system with Chinese characteristics was divided into seven legal sectors, laws on the protection of rights and interests are included under the social law sector, and the “social law theory” gradually became the mainstream view. It should be noted that “social law” is not the “third law field” in the Western academic context, but a branch of the socialist legal system with Chinese characteristics that covers many laws and regulations such as the Labor Law and Social Security Law.¹⁹ Although constitutional law theory recognizes that the Women’s Law pays attention to the basic rights of citizens, this law, as an all-round, comprehensive, and specialized basic law for safeguarding women’s rights and interests,²⁰ should not be recognized as a constitutional document, so as to avoid being inconsistent with the higher-level Constitution. At the same time, it is only in line with legal logic that the lower-level law provides a legal basis for civil rights. Civil rights protected by public law themselves should be able to find a basis in civil rights, otherwise, the specific rights and interests of the person involved cannot be remedied.²¹ Although there is official support for the Women’s Law to be regarded as social law,²² this vague definition still cannot answer the question of whether it is an advocacy law or a practical law.

 

More than 20 years after the implementation of the Women’s Law, the legal protection system for women’s rights and interests has developed by leaps and bounds, and relevant legislation is also large-scaled. The nature of the Women’s Law is described as “the basic law that guarantees the special subject of women”²³ and “the basic law that safeguards the rights and interests of women.”²⁴ Some scholars consider this law “the national benchmark for the protection of women’s human rights.”²⁵ These two expressions seem to be similar, both emphasizing uniformity and standardization, but the basic law lays emphasis on guidance, while the national benchmark lays emphasis on the bottom line. In this kind of expression, “principle” and “specific” are put together, and so are top-level design and low-level operation. This makes the law doubtful in terms of normative content, legislative expression, applicable boundaries, connection with relevant laws and regulations, and inheritance with lower-level laws. Its vague positioning makes many general initiatives become legal provisions, but without detailed and practicable provisions, it would be difficult for both principle advocacy and legal text to be implemented. Therefore, whether it is for the realization of legislative purposes or to meet the needs of judicial practice, the amendment of the Women’s Law in the new era should first clarify its positioning, that is, a “protection law” for women’s special rights and interests, the “foundation law” in the entire legal system of women’s rights and interests, and a “practical law” that can be used as an indicator of women’s protection of the rule of law and the basis for judicial relief.

 

 

Firstly, from the perspective of legislative evolution, the Women’s Law has always been positioned as a “protection law” that focuses on protection and practicality. At the beginning of its legislative preparations, Guan Tao, then secretary of the Secretariat of the All-China Women’s Federation, proposed the legislative goal that the Women’s Law should be a practical law, pointing out that the focus of this law was not on the collection of contents about women’s rights and interests in various laws, but on strengthening specific measures and regulations from the perspective of protection, and the key was how to ensure the implementation.²⁶ Specifically, the purpose of legislation mainly includes the following three aspects. First, to establish the basic principles of women’s rights protection as the basis and reference for other legislation related to women.²⁷ Second, to integrate various laws and regulations to form a logical and rigorous legal system designed to protect women’s rights and interests.²⁸ Third, to improve rules and strengthen implementation on issues that are really necessary and possible to solve. Judging from the content of the text, the first purpose has been achieved after the legislation takes effect, and the latter two should be the focus of the amendment this time.

 

Secondly, from the perspective of provisions, the evolution of the Women’s Law shows a trend of an increasing focus on practicality. For example, paragraph 1 of Article 5, Article 8, and paragraphs 1 and 3 of Article 12 all have the attribute of advocacy of legal norms, but they account for a relatively small proportion among the 61 articles of the whole law. In 2005, the law was amended and comprehensively improved, strengthening the government’s main role in law enforcement, standardizing the functions of the Women’s Federation to carry out activities in accordance with laws and regulations, integrating the responsibilities of different institutions, and improving the operability of legal responsibilities and other contents. In addition, judging from existing judicial decisions, although many references are based on the same provisions in other laws except the Constitution, there are also some direct references to relevant provisions of the Women’s Law.²⁹

 

Third, the changes in the social situation in the past two decades put forward new requirements for the Women’s Law to realize the dual attributes of “law for protection“ and “law for use.” From the gender ratio of political participation, China is still far from the commitment of “at least 30 percent of women in legislative and decision-making positions at all levels of government,” but not too far away from European countries.³⁰ The indicators of education equity, health and survival between the sexes in China have basically caught up with those in Europe, and women’s education level, work participation rate, social and family status have been greatly improved. However, from the macro perspective, women are still in a vulnerable position: incidents of domestic violence against women happen frequently; the prevention and suppression of sexual harassment in schools, workplaces and public places need to be strengthened; the legal rights of women in divorce cases still need to be protected;³¹ gender discrimination in employment still exists for a long time,³² and “motherhood penalty” suppresses unmarried women’s willingness to bear children and career development;³³ the protection of rural women’s land rights and interests is also facing severe challenges; and so on.³⁴ In the social and cultural environment of China, the deep-rooted preference for boys has not been eliminated.³⁵ Traditional stereotypes about gender identity and relationships continue to infiltrate modern law. This structural preservation of traditional ethics based on Confucianism also weakens the effectiveness and coercive force of enforcement to a certain extent.³⁶ This amendment of the law should fill these gaps, refine regulations and strengthen enforcement.

 

Finally, the Women’s Law is also the foundation law for the protection of women’s rights and interests. This status also requires that this law must coordinate with other laws to achieve systematic coordination and interaction. At the beginning of the legislation, the legislators did not make clear its positioning but stressed that the Women’s Law “focused on protection,” and that the guiding ideology was to standardize, concretize and institutionalize the provisions on equality between men and women and the protection of women’s rights and interests in existing laws through various provisions about protection, coordination, sanction and supplement.³⁷ Under the new situation, old and new issues of women’s rights and interests are intertwined, and the Women’s Law alone cannot solve all problems. Its function as a foundational law means that it needs to be the basis for a complete legislative system, and more importantly, it needs to realize institutional integration and interaction with other relevant legal systems. Take the protection of rural women’s land rights as an example. Although the Women’s Law provides only that women enjoy equal rights with men,³⁸ many laws and relevant policy documents and judicial interpretations issued by the State Council and the Supreme People’s Court have further explained how to protect rural women’s land rights and interests, including the Civil Code, the Land Administration Law, the Organic Law of the Villagers’ Committees, the Law on the Contracting of Rural Land, the Law on the Mediation and Arbitration of Rural Land Contract Disputes, the Outline for Women’s Development in China, the Notice on Effectively Safeguarding the Rights and Interests of Rural Women in the Land Contract, the Emergency Notice on Properly Resolving Current Rural Land Contracting Disputes and the Interpretation on the Application of Law in the Trial of Cases Involving Rural Land Contracting Disputes.

 

 

 

The Women’s Law has been revised twice since its promulgation. Although it maintains the original nine-chapter format. Chapter I is the general provisions. Chapters II to VII are the specific provisions. Chapters VIII and IX are the legal liability and supplementary provisions. The specific provisions cover six categories of women’s rights and interests, including political rights, rights and interests relating to culture and education, rights and interests relating to labor and social security, rights and interests relating to property, rights of person, and rights and interests relating to marriage and family, which has standardized the categories of women’s rights and interests. In general, the provisions are abstract and extensive, and there is room for improvement in chapter arrangement and content design if the Women’s Law is to be a guarantee law and practical law.

 

First, in terms of its specific legislative expression, the Women’s Law does not have terms of definition. As a comprehensive law, whether the term definition is the same or not has a direct bearing on the coordination with other laws. In the Republic of Korea, the Act on Promotion of Economic Activities of Career-Interrupted Women specifically clarifies the definition of the term “career-interrupted woman,” and the Framework Act on Prevention of Violence Against Women explains terms such as “violence against women” and “victim of violence against women.” In Japan, the Basic Law for a Gender Equal Society defines what constitutes “a gender equal society”; and the Child Care and Family Care Leave Law stipulates that the terms involved in the law are referred to the special bills respectively, so as to reflect the coordination and connection between laws.³⁹ However, the relevant legislation in China has not yet paid attention to the definition of “terms” in the law, the lack of which in the general provisions hinders the realization of the three functional values of Women’s Law.

 

Second, the division of the Women’s Law is based on different fields of rights and different types of rights, but the combination of the two division standards makes it difficult to clarify the line between each chapter. First, the dichotomy of property and personal rights and interests is one of the typical ways of classifying rights, but work, marriage, family and other fields cannot be juxtaposed with it. Whether in the public or private field, women’s property rights and interests may exist and be reflected in all fields in which they participate. Second, the chapter “Rights and Interests Relating to Property” also has a top-down structure, but only includes rural women’s collective economic rights and interests, common property rights and interests in marriage and family, and inheritance rights and interests. Third, the chapter “Rights and Interests Relating to Marriage and Family” protects women’s freedom of marriage and childbearing, and explicitly prohibits domestic violence, but this can also be included in the chapter “Right of Person.”

 

Third, the sequence of rights and interests-related chapters is unreasonable. Although the sequence arrangement of chapters has no influence on the effectiveness of rights and interests protection, the Women’s Law, as a foundation law, is a weathervane of the importance of rights and interests protection, and can also provide guidance for other relevant legislation. It puts political rights in first place, rights and interests relating to marriage and family in the last place, and right of person after property rights, which obviously goes against the current understanding that rights and interests relating to the person are the basis of all rights. This is a piece of legislation that tries to meet international standards, but its arrangement is inconsistent with the sequence of rights and interests in the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (hereinafter referred to as the CEDAW).

 

Fourth, the system arrangement of the Women’s Law neglects important procedural provisions, which weakens its executability and operability, and is not conducive to improving the internal system. On the one hand, there is a lack of detailed provisions on the powers and responsibilities of responsible institutions and departments. The relevant legislations of the three Nordic countries with remarkable achievements in gender equality, such as the Norwegian Gender Equality Act, the Swedish Equal Opportunities Act, and the Danish Law on Equal Treatment between Men and Women in Occupational Schemes, all stipulate the responsibilities and obligations of implementing institutions and social organizations in detail, and set special chapters such as “Commissioners and Similar Institutions”, “Gender Equality Commission” etc.. In contrast, the Women’s Law only provides overarching provisions in the general provisions, and the procedural part is too simple. On the other hand, an important deficiency in the Women’s Law is that there is no provision for gender equality assessment for legislation related to women and the effect of its implementation, which makes it difficult to prevent discriminatory provisions in the legal system at the source. Although China has carried out gender equality assessments in local regulations, it has not yet risen to the level of national legislation. This leads to problems such as inconsistent evaluation subjects, evaluation scope, and evaluation standards in the gender equality assessments of policies and regulations in practice.⁴⁰

 

 

As mentioned above, the Women’s Law is the foundation and pillar of the protection system of women’s rights and interests in China. On the basis of clarifying the legal positioning of its protection and practicability, the system should be further optimized based on the existing experience and prospective assessment, so as to lay a foundation for future development.⁴¹ First, in the General Provisions, the provisions on the specific responsibilities of relevant institutions should be added, and provisions on the evaluation of gender equality in laws and policies should be added and clarified. For laws, regulations, rules and normative documents involving women’s rights and interests, the actual differences between the two sexes and the special interests of women should be fully considered, and specialized professional evaluations should be made from a gender perspective. Some local implementation measures have determined the evaluation of policies and regulations,⁴² but due to the lack of unified legislative norms, the feasibility and implementation need to be strengthened. Second, in view of the problems such as the inconsistent criteria for distinguishing chapters and the imperfect sequence of chapters, it is necessary to change the arrangement of Rights and Interests Relating to Property and the right of person to show concern for the principal position of women, and at the same time emphasize the system goal of protecting women from violence. Third, clauses to define terms should be added where necessary to enhance the practicality and operability of legislation, such as clarifying the definition of “women,” clarifying the scope of various rights and interests, adding the definition of gender discrimination, and listing the main manifestations of gender discrimination in detail. It is also a demonstration of China’s stand and determination to eliminate all forms of discrimination against women. After the internal system framework is complete, it is necessary to perfect and update the specific systems inside the system, so as to truly make the Women’s Law a practical law.

 

 

Laws such as the Constitution, the Civil Code and the Labor Law place women on the equal status of natural persons as men for equal protection, while the Women’s Law provides specific and comprehensive protection from the gender perspective to achieve substantial equality between men and women. On the one hand, the amendment of the Women’s Law should improve the specific systems for the realization of women’s personal, property and social rights and interests, and ensure that the provisions of the law can meet its protection and practicability requirements. On the other hand, the system improvement of the Women’s Law should organically coordinate and interact with relevant legislative provisions such as the Civil Code, Labor Law, and Special Rules on the Labor Protection of Female Employees. To sum up, we should delete provisions that fall behind the times and do not meet the requirements of the new situation, add new regulations to deal with new problems, new areas and new needs, and update existing provisions that need to be adjusted due to changes in the environment and other legislative amendments.

 

 

The Women’s Law, amended in 2005, is the first national legal text that explicitly includes the concept of “sexual harassment.” Although it does not define the concept of sexual harassment, it makes a declarative provision on the prohibition of sexual harassment, which helps people to realize that sexual harassment is prohibited by law. It also shows the basic position of the state to protect women’s rights and interests and the firm attitude to prohibit sexual harassment, which is also important progress in China’s human rights protection.⁴³ Although the declarative role of this provision far exceeds its possible role in judicial practice, the problems with this provision highlighted in the specific practice also point the way for the elaboration of local and national legislation.⁴⁴ Women are still the main victims of sexual harassment. Data in 2010 showed that 7.8 percent of the surveyed women had experienced sexual harassment at work, in labor or at school.⁴⁵ However, in law enforcement and judicial practice, the identification of sexual harassment is a difficult problem. The reason is not only that the evidence is difficult to collect and verify, but also that the concept and legal nature of sexual harassment are different in theoretical research and practice.

 

The Civil Code and new civil causes of action place sexual harassment under the category of personality rights.⁴⁶ It is not only China’s determination to firmly protect women’s right of person in the school and workplace, but also provides institutional guidelines for employers and courts to actively act and provide judicial relief after women suffer from sexual harassment on campus or in workplace. However, China’s existing legislation does not have detailed provisions on how to identify sexual harassment, what circumstances and to what degree are sexual harassment, and how to provide evidence for sexual harassment. Countries such as the United Kingdom, the United States, and Germany had already attempted anti-sexual harassment legislation in the 1990s, and provided social services such as media publicity and psychological counseling. In accordance with the international commitment to eliminate gender discrimination, countries have successively established the principles that sexual harassment does not have to be for sexual purposes,⁴⁷ the victim must subjectively be “unwelcome harassment behavior,”⁴⁸ and sexual harassment between the same sex can also constitute sexual harassment.⁴⁹ Details of the application of the sexual harassment system in practice are also added. In China, it was not until the Notice by the Supreme People’s Court of Adding More Causes of Action in Civil Cases issued in 2018 that sexual harassment cases were added to provide judicial relief for victims, but cases were filed on the grounds of general disputes over personality rights, rights to body integrity, right of reputation, and right of privacy. Ambiguous definitions give judges too much discretion, especially in cases where speech constitutes sexual harassment, where different judges perceive sexual innuendo or harassment differently.⁵⁰ Comparatively speaking, China’s current legal system for the prevention and treatment of sexual harassment is still in its infancy. There is still much room for regulation, which is also one of the urgently needed additions to the Women’s Law. Article 1010 of the Civil Code added the prevention and treatment of sexual harassment after absorbing the experience of local legislation. However, it is not specific protection legislation based on the perspective of gender, so the provisions are abstract and simple. The specialized and practical nature of the Women’s Law requires that the new provisions concerning sexual harassment should pay attention to the characteristics and needs of women as the main victim group, and make detailed and systematic provisions on sexual harassment in workplaces, campuses and other places mentioned in the Civil Code. To be specific, first, it is necessary to provide a clear definition of sexual harassment or give clear examples. Second, considering that the Civil Code only mentions the obligation of preventing sexual harassment in institutions, enterprises, and schools, the revised law should supplement the provisions covering all employers and public places and provide the duties and powers of these units in detail. Third, although the cause of action is set to open the door for victims of sexual harassment to obtain judicial remedies, the unclear distribution of the burden of proof has led to poor access to judicial remedies. In terms of the burden of proof, we can learn from the legislative experience of Germany and implement the “inversion of the burden,”, that is, when the victim presents the prima facie facts, the accused party must prove the evidence of sexual harassment is inconclusive.⁵¹

 

 

China is a founding party to the CEDAW, which aims to eliminate discrimination against women in all matters related to marriage and family relations. Article 14 of the CEDAW includes the elimination of discrimination against women in rural areas. Compared with urban women, the rights and interests relating to property of women in rural areas of China should be paid more attention to.⁵² Therefore, the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025) and the draft Outline for Long-Range Objectives Through the Year 2035 further emphasize the importance of protecting rural women’s land rights and interests. The Constitution clearly stipulates that women, as equal individuals, enjoy equal rights and interests relating to property with men, such as the right to land contract and the income from collective economic shares. However, under the influence of the old ideas of “a woman is part of her husband’s family after marriage” and “women should live with the husband,” some places often restrict or infringe on women’s rights and interests relating to property by means of village rules and regulations. Surveys show that the proportion of rural women without land is much higher than that of men, reaching 21 percent, while men only account for about 10 percent. Among the landless women, up to 27.7 percent of women lost their land due to changes in marital relations such as marriage, remarriage, divorce and widowhood, while men who lost their land due to changes in marriage accounted for only one-ninth of the number of women who lost land.⁵³ The Women’s Law stipulates that rural women enjoy the same rights as men in land contracting and other rights and interests relating to property, and provides two remedies, government mediation and litigation, when their rights and interests are violated. To a certain extent, it is helpful to solve the problem of difficult acceptance of such cases, protect women’s related property rights and interests, and improve the situation that rural women’s property rights and interests are frequently violated. However, at present, there is no unified legislation to effectively supervise and manage the autonomy and illegality of villagers’ committees in formulating the provisions on the distribution of collective land rights and interests, which makes it difficult for the government to supervise. Moreover, due to the lack of clear stipulations on the requirements for the members of rural collective economic organizations to enjoy rights and interests, courts are constrained by the lack of basis for adjudication when accepting cases of rural women’s land rights and interests, and judicial relief is difficult to exert, and some have to take an evasive attitude.⁵⁴

 

From the perspective of local legislative experience, the Measures of Guangdong Province for Implementing the Law of the People’s Republic of China on the Protection of Women’s Rights and Interests took the lead in making specific provisions on the requirements for rural women to enjoy rights and interests, and thus became the most judicially-applied clause among similar local implementation measures.⁵⁵ Newly revised local regulations in Liaoning Province, Jiangsu Province and Tianjin Municipality have also highlighted the villagers’ autonomous regulations and village regulations as the most common forms of infringement.⁵⁶ Based on these local experiences, it is necessary to amend the Women’s Law to clarify the conditions for women to enjoy membership in rural collective economic organizations in the chapter on property rights. Those who have registered permanent residence and perform corresponding obligations enjoy equal rights with other members of the rural collective economic organization, such as the right to contract land management. And it is emphasized that the lawful rights and interests of women in rural collective economic organizations shall not be violated by means of villagers’ autonomous regulations, village regulations and civil agreements. Based on the pilot experience of Fengyang of Anhui Province and other places, the legislation should clearly stipulate that rural women can be included in the land contract management right confirmation register and property rights certificate documents.⁵⁷ Women’s rights are better protected when they are listed as contractors’ representatives than when they are listed as co-owners. This not only strengthens the connection between women and village groups in the land contract relationship, improves the social status of women, it also enables women to have more say and take the initiative in the transfer of land, and improve the status of women in their families. In particular, when both the husband and wife act as the representative of the contractor, when issuing a new land contractual management right certificate or changing the registration of the right holder, the registration shall be carried out in the names of the husband and wife. These new amendments reflect that the Women’s Law focuses on the shortcomings and priorities in the protection of women’s rights and interests at present and in the future, and is both practical and forward-looking. At the same time, it makes up for the deficiencies of relevant laws such as the Civil Code, and interacts with other legislation involving the protection of rural women’s property rights and interests, providing a legal basis for the settlement of rural land disputes.

 

 

Articles 22 to 29 of the Women’s Law stipulate women’s labor and social security rights. Article 22 is the advocacy for and summary of gender equality in the two fields. Articles 23 to 27 cover women’s labor rights and interests. And Articles 28 and 29 are social security provisions. Although these eight articles seem to cover a wide range of areas, the valuable content in practice is little. Details are not well arranged and are not practical. Articles 22 and 24 are provided for in similar articles in the Constitution. ⁵⁸ The regulations and circumstances of labor rights in the other six articles are too narrow and overlap with relevant contents of the Labor Law and the Special Rules on the Labor Protection of Female Employees (hereinafter referred to as the “Special Rules”).⁵⁹ Of the remaining two articles on social security, Article 28 lacks gender specificity, which overlaps with the relevant provisions of the Social Insurance Law.⁶⁰ Article 29 only briefly mentions maternity insurance and assistance, which is both a repetition of the Family Planning Law⁶¹ and out of touch with the current maternity security reform. To be specific, based on the current and future problems that women need to solve in terms of labor, employment and social security, this amendment should focus on the following two aspects.

 

 

After the relaxation of the birth policy, especially since the implementation of the universal three-child policy, women’s choice to have children has increased, but employment discrimination against women has also increased. According to a survey, 10 percent of women have experienced gender discrimination in employment, and the figure for men is only 4.5 percent. Among those who have been dismissed due to marriage, pregnancy and childbirth, 73.6 percent are women.⁶² At the same time, the increase in labor and employment discrimination, in turn, inhibits women of child bearing age from having children and impedes the realization of reproductive rights.⁶³ The Women’s Law and other relevant legislations adopt the method of simply enumerating gender discrimination in labor and employment, and there is no clear definition of them, which leads to low costs for evasion of employers. In judicial practice, it is also difficult for the court to make a judgment on whether an employer’s recruitment and promotion plans and procedures involve discrimination.

 

In 2006, the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (hereinafter referred to as the UNCEDAW) pointed out that China’s legislation had still did not defined discrimination against women, including direct and indirect discrimination, in accordance with Article 1 of the CEDAW.⁶⁴ Compared with the lag in legislation at the national level, some local legislative experiences have already explored more detailed explanations of gender discrimination. For example, Article 3 of the Measures of Shaanxi Province for the Implementation of the Law of the People’s Republic of China on the Protection Women’s Rights and Interests further identifies gender discrimination as discriminatory distinction, exclusion or restriction based on gender.⁶⁵ Taking into account the relevant provisions of the higher-level Constitution and CEDAW,⁶⁶ gender discrimination against women can generally be defined as any discrimination, exclusion, restriction or impediment of women’s equal rights with men in political, economic, social, cultural and family life on the basis of gender. At the same time, considering that China’s existing laws explicitly prohibit direct discrimination, while gender discrimination in the current labor market is more subtle, this amendment of the law can define and prohibit direct discrimination and indirect discrimination, respectively, according to the recommendations of UNCEDAW.⁶⁷ In other words, direct discrimination is when one person is treated relatively less favorably than another because of their gender in similar circumstances, while indirect discrimination is more insidious: rules, standards or customs that appear to be neutral on the surface, but they are what may put one gender in a particularly disadvantageous position compared with another gender. This shall also be considered gender discrimination.⁶⁸

 

In recent years, China has become more and more aligned with international standards in anti-employment discrimination and has also accumulated some experience with Chinese characteristics. For example, in 2019, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, the Ministry of Education and other seven ministries jointly issued the Notice on Further Regulating Recruitment and Promoting Women’’s Employment (hereinafter referred to as the Notice), which further detailed the specific manifestations of gender discrimination in employment. The Notice requires that all types of employers and human resources service agencies shall not limit gender (except for the not suggested work for female employees) or give priority to specific sex in the recruitment plan, information, and recruitment process, and shall not restrict women’s job-seeking or refuse to hire women on the grounds of gender. When recruiting women, no inquiries about marriage and childbearing shall be made, pregnancy tests shall not be used as an entry examination item, birth restrictions shall not be used as a condition of employment, and the employment standards for women shall not be raised in a differentiated manner. A joint negotiation mechanism has also been set up for units and institutions that violate the regulations to provide the basis for judicial remedies for those who have suffered from discrimination.⁶⁹ However, the Notice cannot be as mandatory and normative as uniform legislation. The amendment of the Women’s Law can be based on the three-year experience in the implementation of the Notice by the nine ministries, further refine the description of gender discrimination in the process of recruitment and promotion, clarify the responsibilities of various departments and agencies to prevent and treat gender discrimination in employment, and provide for pre-judicial procedures for joint interviews, and improve the judicial relief mechanism by clarifying the scope of discrimination and the burden of proof and compensation.

 

 

Labor rights and interests are the basic rights and interests granted to workers by law in terms of working relations, which mainly include employment rights, labor safety and health protection rights. Because of women’s special physiological functions, women’s labor rights and interests include not only those that women and men enjoy equally, but also those that women enjoy solely based on their special physiological functions.⁷⁰ As mentioned above, after the implementation of the policy of moderately encouraging childbearing, the protection of women’s labor and childbearing rights and interests complement each other and need to be organically combined in the legislative system. The draft Outline for the 14th Five-Year Plan for Economic and Social Development and Long-Range Objectives Through the Year 2035 called for protecting women’s labor rights and interests. Especially as data from the seventh national population census show that the total fertility rate of women at childbearing age is 1.3 in 2020, which is at a low level.⁷¹ It is particularly important to improve women’s childbearing willingness and further improve the protection of labor rights and interests of female staff of childbearing age.

 

According to the Women’s Law, women’s labor protection rights include general range of forbidden work and protection during menstruation, pregnancy, childbirth, and breastfeeding.⁷² In general range of forbidden work, the Women’s Law only stipulates that employers shall not arrange for women to perform unsuitable jobs, and the forbidden work is detailed by administrative regulations. In terms of the protection during menstruation, pregnancy, childbirth, and breastfeeding, the Women’s Law stipulates that, in order to guarantee women’s right to labor protection, women shall be given special protection during menstruation, pregnancy, childbirth, and breastfeeding, and employers are not allowed to lower wages or unilaterally terminate labor contracts. The Labor Law, Special Rules and other relative laws and regulations do not stipulate the specific circumstances of special protection for female workers during menstruation, pregnancy, childbirth, and breastfeeding. In practice, the infringement on the labor rights and remuneration rights of female employees during marriage and childbirth is mainly manifested in the reduction of wages and the unilateral termination of labor (employment) contracts or service agreements.⁷³ Some employers have seriously violated the labor rights and interests of women during marriage and childbirth by suspending the payment of wages, deferring the adjustment of the wages and positions of female employees, reducing or lowering the welfare of female employees, and turning them into unemployed or redundant workers.⁷⁴ According to the current legal regulations, it is difficult for these acts to be identified as violations of labor rights, and it is difficult for courts to apply the Women’s Law in judicial decisions to protect women’s labor and reproductive rights.⁷⁵

 

The Women’s Law has not been substantially revised for a long time, while women’s labor rights are facing new problems and challenges. In 2012, in accordance with the Outline for the Development of Women,⁷⁶ the Special Rules replaced the Regulations Concerning the Labor Protection of Female Staff and Workers to have more detailed provisions on the rights and interests of female employees in terms of labor and childbirth.⁷⁷ In recent years, many places have refined their labor and social security rights and interests in the formulation of local implementation measures of the Special Rules. For example, the implementation measures of Shanghai and Tianjin have enriched and supplemented the content of special protection for female employees during menstruation, pregnancy, childbirth, and breastfeeding, and, based on prohibiting the wage rductions for female employees during pregnancy and childbirth and unilaterally rescinding tehe contract by employers, the prohibited content is extended to not affecting the promotion of female employees or adjusting jobs without their consent.⁷⁸ Because the provisions are detailed and operable, the frequency of applying these provisions in the trial of cases about female workers’ labor rights infringement has increased significantly, which provides a basis for judicial rights protection and relief.⁷⁹ However, due to different legislative levels and low levels of effectiveness and enforcement, it is difficult for local implementation measures of the Special Rules to respond to and deal with the shortcomings in the protection of women’s labor and maternity rights and interests in a unified manner. As an administrative regulation that has been promulgated for ten years, the Special Rules have shown the following three problems. First, they areset specifically for female employees, not for all women, and the rights and obligations are mainly between the employer and its employees. Second, the content mainly provides “special” protection, but there is no clear definition and subdivision of labor and employment discrimination. Third, it lags behind the current development of labor and employment and the reform of the childbearing policy, and many provisions need to be updated and improved. Therefore, regarding labor and social rights and interests, the amendment of the Women’s Law should make up for the above deficiencies while considering the connectiosn and interaction with the Special Rules. First, as a basic law on the protection of women’s rights, it should pay attention to the unification and universality of the protection. The amendment should extend the protection of labor and reproductive rights to all women. Second, the Special Regulations give special protection to female employees with respect to biological differences regarding gender. The Women’s Law should make up for the shortcomings of the precedent in preventing discriminatory treatment, clearly define and refine the scope and types of work and employment discrimination, and prevent “excessive” protection in the labor market from causing discriminatory treatment or the fact that employers discriminate in the name of protection. Third, it is necessary to clarify the specific responsibilities of relevant government departments in policy formulation, provision of measures, supervision and management, and rights protection and relief, to reduce the burden on employers. If women’s labor rights protection and childbearing cost-sharing are mainly borne by employers, employers will adopt more hidden discriminatory means in recruitment and promotion, which will aggravate gender discrimination and further inhibit the reproductive willingness and choice of women of childbearing age.

 

 

The amendment of chapters in the Women’s Law and the updating of systems according to their security, practicability, and foundational legal positioning and functions are the improvement of its internal system. The legislative system for protecting women’s rights and interests in China should be guided by the Constitution, dominated by the Women’s Law, supplemented by other laws at the same level,⁸⁰ and enriched in greater detail in administrative regulations⁸¹ and local regulations.⁸² Although this system has begun to take shape, the Women’s Law, which is the foundation and pillar, has not played a role in connecting and coordinating the higher and lower laws. The amendment of the Women’s Law should not only focus on the improvement of its own structure and content, but also pay attention to its organic interaction with other laws.

 

 

 

The Constitution is the legislative basis and supreme norm of basic laws. Its principles and advocacy provisions on women’s rights and equality between men and women must be implemented in the amendment of the Women’s Law and transformed into operable and practical institutional measures. Articles 1 and 2 of the Women’s Law point out the guiding role of the Constitution and directly refer to relevant articles of the Constitution.⁸³ The subsequent chapters also provide for women’s rights and interests in the fields of politics, culture and education, labor and social security, property, person, marriage and family in accordance with Article 48 of the Constitution.

 

As mentioned above, the provisions of the Women’s Law are too abstract, simple and not practical. For example, the first two articles of the General Provisions are almost the same as those of the Constitution, while the contents of the last five articles are scattered. The Women’s Law, guided by the principled provisions of the Constitution, harmonizes the systems related to the protection of women’s rights in the law of the same level, but it is neither a duplication of the former nor a summary of the latter. At the same time, the amendment this time should set up and improve relevant systems according to the provisions of the Constitution and current new issues. For example, the protection of women’s right of person is a constitutional clause. The Women’s Law should not just repeat and emphasize it, but rather, it should refine and subdivide the prohibited behavior and protective measures. In recent years, some brand advertisements have frequently materialized or derogated women, which infringes on women’s personality rights.⁸⁴ But in practice, there is no relevant law as a basis for rights protection. In cases involving gender discrimination infringing upon the rights and interests of women, it is difficult to claim individual rights violations. All-China Women’s Federations or other organizations usually propose to protest and defend their rights. Although it may solve a single problem, such rights protection is not sustainable nor stable. As the current legal system has not given the necessary attention, organizations for women can only initiate group lawsuits. This requires the amendment of the law, under the guiding principle of protecting women’s personal rights and interests, to clarify the elements of rights, and to refine the types of infringements and the subjects of responsibility.

 

 

The Civil Code, Labor Law, Criminal Law, Law on Maternal and Infant Health Care and other departmental laws have the same level of effectiveness as the Women’s Law, but these laws are not based on a gender perspective, and women are protected as equal natural persons. There are only a few articles dealing with women’s rights and interests. This amendment not only needs to avoid contradiction with the contents of other laws of the same level, but also plays the role of connecting the scattered provisions of various departmental laws and coordinating the system of other laws. Women’s Law occupies the dominant position as the basic law in the legal system for the protection of women’s rights and interests. The content of regulation and adjustment is the most fundamental and important aspect of women’s issues, providing the guiding principles and basis for the establishment and amendment of articles concerning women’s rights in other laws.⁸⁵

 

Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, China’s human rights protection and social security rule of law construction has entered a new era. The quality and quantity of legislation and law amendment are also improving. The interaction between the Women’s Law and other laws at the same level, especially the Civil Code, has become increasingly important. For the first time, the Women’s Law sets up provisions for the protection of women’s reproductive rights and privacy rights, and prohibits sexual harassment.⁸⁶ However, the implementation of these provisions requires not only the refinement of the provisions of the law itself, but also the coordination of relevant provisions in other laws. The vacuum in the protection system needs to be filled, the lag-behind parts need to be updated, and outdated regulations need to be abolished. For example, Article 51 of the 2005 Amendment to the Women’s Law adds the state’s obligation to promote women’s reproductive health services based on the content of the Law on Maternal and Infant Health Care.⁸⁷ What this amendment urgently needs to add is the definition of sexual harassment. The provisions on compensation for housework should also be updated. The Women’s Law maintains the premise of the separation of property between husband and wife in the era of the Marriage Law, while the Civil Code abolishes this premise in order to affirm the value of housework. After the family planning policy is adjusted, the provisions on family planning should be deleted. In the application of the law, it is necessary to coordinate the invocation of laws at the same level. As a special law, the Women’s Law should take precedence over laws at the same level such as the Civil Code in terms of protection of women’s rights. Article 128 of the Civil Code provides that the Women’s Law has priority in application when it comes to protecting women’s rights and interests at the level of basic civil law.⁸⁸ The priority application of the Women’s Law requires the judicial organs and their staff to exercise their judicial powers, perform their duties, and fully respect the rights of the parties in accordance with the procedural law and the provisions of the Women’s Law in the judicial practice of protecting women’s rights and interests.⁸⁹

 

 

China’s existing administrative regulations on the protection of women’s rights include Special Rules. Compared with basic laws such as the Women’s Law, these regulations and rules are more specific and detailed, and have stronger judicial applicability. At the same time, the differences in local culture and economy in China make it difficult for unified legislation to fully take into account the specific conditions of different localities.⁹⁰ On the one hand, local legislation needs to conform to the basic spirit of higher-level laws. On the premise of not contradicting higher-level laws such as the Women’s Law or administrative regulations, relevant national systems and regulations should be refined into more specific, targeted, operable and enforceable provisions that better suit local conditions. On the other hand, the amendment work of local implementation measures should actively absorb the latest research in the theoretical circles and the latest explorations in the practical circles, and make more bold attempts than the unified law in terms of legislative mode, chapter structure and system innovation. However, due to the lag and jurisdiction of the higher-level law, the lower-level regulations and methods are prone to fall into the dilemma of a lack of overall optimization when trying to innovate and make breakthroughs, which to a certain extent has given pressure on the amendment and improvement of the Women’s Law.⁹¹ Innovative local legislation is the only way to meet local development needs and realize lawbased local governance. Local governments play the role of pilots and “experimental fields” for legislation of the central government, accumulating experience and creating conditions for formal legislation, and helping to improve the socialist rule of law system.⁹² The Legislation Law provides a legal basis for local legislation to be the pioneer.⁹³ As shown in the table below, some local Implementation Measures have been revised ahead of time in recent years. The new and updated content mainly focuses on four areas with more disputes, such as sexual harassment prevention and treatment, labor and social security rights, rural women’s land contract, and other property rights and interests.

 

 

 

As mentioned above, the Women’s Law implements the principle of gender equality stipulated in the Constitution, and shall ensure that the rights and responsibilities in each chapter are clearly specified, so as to provide administrative and judicial remedies when women’s rights and interests are violated.⁹⁴ Litigation is the most powerful means to protect women’s rights and interests. The former is mainly aimed at those with unequal legal status, which can clarify the violation of rights and interests by the subject of the competent department. And the latter is aimed at the violation of the legitimate rights and interests of women by subjects in equal status.⁹⁵ Article 54 of the Women’s Law stipulates the obligation of women’s organizations to support lawsuits. Behind this can be added a way of helping by filing a lawsuit. This can provide a legal basis and space for women’s organizations to file public interest lawsuits, and give women’s organizations the status of plaintiff, from supporting women’s rights protection to directly guiding women’s rights protection, making full use of their social status and influence, and giving full play to their professional advantages to better protect the legal rights of women. The Civil Procedure Law also provides a legal basis for women’s organizations to file public interest lawsuits.⁹⁶ Specifically, the more prominent and urgent problems in current violations of women’s rights and interests, such as work and employment discrimination, sexual harassment, domestic violence, violation of personality rights and land rights and interests, should be clearly included in the scope of judicial relief, and the supervision mechanism should be improved. Article 56 of the Women’s Law simply states that for acts infringing upon women’s rights and interests, administrative penalties shall be imposed and criminal or civil liabilities shall be investigated. However, there are no clear provisions on the type of damage, the determination of liability, the scope of compensation, the calculation method, etc., and the judicial invocation and practicability are low in practice. The amendment of the law this time should improve these contents under the guidance of the relevant principles of the Constitution.

 

 

In the legal system for the protection of women’s rights and interests, the Women’s Law was been promulgated earlier than other legislation of the same level, and its provisions are more abstract and even lagging behind than relevant provisions of these laws. The amendment of the Women’s Law should try to maintain the coordination and consistency with the relevant provisions of other laws, but cannot simply copy them. We must uphold innovation and strengthen efforts when it comes to important issues and weak links related to women’s rights and interests. We should not unilaterally emphasize coordination and reduce the gender perspective and protection of the Women’s Law, otherwise it will prevent it from playing its exclusive and targeted role as the basic law for the protection of women’s rights and interests.⁹⁷ On the one hand, the amendment of the law needs to examine whether there are provisions in the Civil Code, Labor Law, Law on Maternal and Infant Health Care, etc. that conflict with the Women’s Law. If so, it should be judged which provisions are more in line with the abovementioned constitutional guiding principles or can better protect women’s rights and interests. The amendment of the Women’s Law cannot be mistakenly subject to the provisions of the Civil Code. For example, on the issue of compensation for housework, the Women’s Law and the Civil Code contradict each other in terms of premise provisions. If there is a conflict, the amendment of the law should follow the principle of equal rights and obligations, and remove the former’s restriction on the premise of a separate property system between husband and wife, and expand the scope of application of economic compensation for divorce to protect the economic interests of those who pay more for housework and to maintain family ethics.⁹⁸

 

On the other hand, the Women’s Law has special objects and scopes in adjustment, and it adjusts women’s political, economic, marriage and family rights. These provisions overlap with the provisions concerning women’s personality, marriage and family rights and interests in the Books on Personality Rights and Marriage and Family of the Civil Code, and the provisions concerning women’s work rights and reproductive rights in the Labor Law and the Family Planning Law. However, the Civil Code is more based on the perspective of equality between men and women, which treats women as natural persons with no gender differences. And the Labor Law, the Family Planning Law and related regulations only focus on the rights and interests of a certain field. The Women’s Law should be based on the perspective of substantive equality between men and women, and treat women as a relatively disadvantaged group to protect their rights in all aspects. The content of the clauses should reflect the nature of protection, preferential treatment and relief. At the same time, the amendment should specify the content of preferential treatment and relief provisions, especially women’s maternity security treatment, elimination of labor and employment discrimination, and treatment of sexual harassment/violation.

 

 

The Women’s Law is guided by the Constitution. It specifies and refines relevant provisions of the Constitution, and externally coordinates the provisions and systems related to women’s rights and interests in other laws at the same level. However, its implementation requires the perfect support and effective cooperation of administrative regulations, local regulations, departmental regulations and other lower-level laws and related policies. As mentioned above, as a special and unified law, the Women’s Law involves the protection of women’s rights and interests in various fields such as politics, economy, culture, society, property, marriage and family, but it is difficult to provide direct solutions to difficult problems in the process of social development. It may also lag behind when it comes to regulations on hot-spot issues. The amendment should leave room for the formulation of relevant administrative regulations in the future to effectively respond to the difficult hot-spot issues in the protection of women’s rights and interests. At the same time, amendments to the law should encourage provincial people’s congresses to innovate and refine the protection systems and measures in the Women’s Law based on legal provisions and local conditions. As the link between local legislative practice and national law, this amendment should pay attention to the prior experience of local women’s rights protection legislation in the new era, and feed back the real needs of women in practice to the central government through the reverse transmission chain, that is, from practice to local regulations and then to national legislative level.⁹⁹ Specifically, women’s right to equality in labor, freedom from domestic violence, sexual harassment, sexual assault and other rights of person, as well as difficult and hot issues such as rural land contracting and related property rights, can be reflected in judicial practice and public opinion. It can be seen from the fact that clauses in the local implementation measures have been cited by judicial judgments many times¹⁰⁰ that the resolution to these problems is the focus of the formulation of relevant regulations and local implementation measures today. However, these laws and regulations are of a low level, and the development of local legislation is different. They still need to be standardized and improved from the level of national legislation.¹⁰¹

 

 

Promoting gender equality is a long-term undertaking that requires regular review of the reality in order to adjust policies in a timely manner. As the basic reference for the protection of women’s rights and interests, the Women’s Law is the main content of the socialist legal system for women’s protection with Chinese characteristics.¹⁰² Coming into being under international commitment and national appeal, it has played a major role in the protection of women’s rights and interests. However, due to the imperfect legal system at that time and the social environment that focused on economic development, the Women’s Law has been too simple in terms of positioning, arrangement and content. The current domestic and foreign environment has undergone profound changes, and it is necessary to re-examine the positioning of this law to adjust its chapter structure, improve specific systems, and strengthen inter-system interaction. It’s necessary to improve the quality of judicial application of this law on the basis of better legislation. At the same time, as a law closely related to the international community, it needs to pay attention to and learn from the legislation of the pioneering countries of gender equality in the world, and finally implement the legislative purpose of the Women’s Law and respond to the real needs of the people.

 

 (Translated by CHEN Feng)

 

* CAO Weiwei ( 曹薇薇 ), Professor, Law School, Hunan University.

 

1. The Law of the People’s Republic of China on the Protection of Women’s Rights and Interests is generally referred to as the Law on the Protection of Women’s Rights and Interests. But the abbreviation Women’s Law dates back to the use of the legislature and the experts and scholars involved in the legislation at the beginning of drafting this law. See Zou Yu, “Explanation on the Law of the People’s Republic of China on the Protection of Women’s Rights and Interests (Draft) — At the Fifth Session of the Seventh National People’s Congress on March 27, 1992,” State Council Gazette 11 (1992); and “Women’s Law Drafting Team: ‘Thoughts about Making the Women’s Law’”, Women’s Studies 1 (1990).

 

2. Zou Yu, “Explanation on the Law of the People’s Republic of China on the Protection of Women’s Rights and Interests (Draft) — At the Fifth Session of the Seventh National People’s Congress on March 27, 1992,” State Council Gazette 11 (1992): 393-399.

 

3. Xue Ninglan, “Review of Legal Protection of Human Rights of Chinese Women since the 1995 World Women’s Conference,“ Journal of Chinese Women’s Studies 6 (2015): 49.

 

4. Xue Ninglan, “Legal Guarantee for Promoting Gender Equality and Women’s Development,” Journal of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, December 13, 2005.

 

5. Zhang Hui, deputy to the National People’s Congress, suggests timely amendment of the Women’s Law.

 

6. “The main data of the seventh national population census announced that there are 1.41178 billion people in the mainland of China, and the sex ratio of the newly born population in 2020 is 111.3,” people.com.

 

7. Cao Weiwei and Du Xinxuan, “The Path to the Construction of a Female-Friendly Maternity Guarantee Legal System in the Transition of Population Policy,” Journal of Shandong Women’s University 3 (2021): 10-22.

 

8. “Motherhood penalty” usually refers to the phenomenon that mothers of young children or potential mothers of young children are excluded from the job market because of undertaking activities related to their motherhood status such as childbirth and caring, which affects their normal career development.

 

9. World Economic Forum, Global Gender Gap Report 2021, Switzerland, 2021.

 

10. General Secretary Xi Jinping put forward four propositions at the High-Level Meeting on the 25th Anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing: first, to help women get rid of the impact of the pandemic; second, to implement gender equality; third, to encourage women to be at the forefront of the times; fourth, strengthen global cooperation in the cause of women.

 

11. “Xi Jinping Delivers Important Speech at the High-Level Meeting on the 25th Anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing,” website of the Central People’s Government of the People’s Republic of China.

 

12. Wang Qichao, “Rough-and-ready and Refined: On the Path of Order Construction of Legislative Techniques,” Hebei Law Science 5 (2021): 171-185.

 

13. Xie Pengcheng ed., Wang Bixue et al., A New Introduction to Law (Beijing: Higher Education Press, 1994), 482.

 

14. Yang Dawen, Law on Marriage and Family (Beijing: China Renmin University Press, 2000), 49.

 

15. Xu Lianli and Du Wenyong, al Law (Beijing: Intellectual Property Publishing House, 2017), 43.

 

16. Theory Office of the Women’s Research Institute of the All-China Women’s Federation, Training Base for Cadres of the All-China Women’s Federation, Research on Mao Zedong’s Thought on Women (Beijing: Red Flag Publishing House, 1993), 128.

 

17. Zhang Li, Research on the Change Mode of Rural Informal Land Rights in the Background of Population Urbanization (Wuhan: Huazhong University of Science and Technology Press, 2019), 99.

 

18. Lin Jianjun, Research on Basic Questions of Women’s Law (Beijing: China Social Sciences Press, 2007), 30.

 

19. Yang Sibin, “Concept Analysis and System Framework of Social Law”, Tribune of Study 8 (2020): 86-96.

 

20. Xin Chunying, Interpretation of the Law of the People’s Republic of China on the Protection of Women’s Rights and Interests (Beijing: Law Press · China, 2005).

 

21. Yang Suiquan, Chen Hongying, Zhao Xiaoping, Zhang Xiaoyuan, et al., New Theory of Marriage and Family Law (Beijing: Law Press · China, 2003), 144.

 

22. What Laws Are Included in Social Law, npc.gov.cn.

 

23. Xia Yinlan, “On the Nature and Characteristics of the Women’s Law,” Journal of Chinese Women’s Studies 2 (1992): 20-23.

 

24. “Explanation on the Law of the People’s Republic of China on the Protection of Women’s Rights and Interests (Draft)” .

 

25. Deng Li, “Interaction between the Law of the People’s Republic of China on the Protection of Women’s Rights and Interests and Local Implementation Measures,” Chinese Journal of Human Rights 2 (2020): 61.

 

26. Lu Langqiu, Penetrating Dangerous Zones: A Record of Contemporary Social Mentality (Beijing: Law Press · China, 2000), 253.

 

27. Guo Jianmei, “On the Status and Characteristics of the Women’s Law,” Journal of Chinese Women’s Studies2 (1992): 13.

 

28. Yang Dawen, “Based on Reality and Emphasis on Protection: General Plan of Amending the Women’s Law,”Chinese Women’s Movement 2 (2004): 35.

 

29. For example, in the case of Huang Binbin, Wang and others infringing on the rights and interests of members of collective economic organizations, the court directly cited the provisions of the Women’s Law that women and men enjoy the same collective economic rights and interests, and ordered the defendant villagers’ organization to pay compensation for land expropriation. (See (2021) Fujian 02 Civil Final Judgment No. 5200)

 

30. The 2019 data shows that the proportion of female parliamentarians in France (39.7%), Italy (35.7%), the United Kingdom (32%), and Germany (30.9%) all met the requirements of the Convention, while the two Asian countries of Japan and South Korea did not perform well, being 10.2% and 17.1%, respectively. And the US is about the same with China, being 23.5% and 24.2%, respectively. See: Inequality-Women in politics-OECD Data, accessed May 28, 2021.

 

31. Chen Wei and Zhang Xin, “An Empirical Study on Legal Protection of Women’s Property Rights and Interests in Litigation for Settlement of Divorce Property: Taking Divorce Cases Concluded by a Basic People’s Court in Chongqing from 2011 to 2013 as the Object,” Hebei Law Science 8 (2016): 27-43.

 

32. “Tan Lin’s Suggestions for the Two Sessions: Amend the Women’s Law and Clearly Include the Definition of ‘Discrimination’ against Women in the General Provisions” .

 

33. Yang Juhua and Sun Chao, “On the ‘Gender-Motherhood Double Taxation’ in the Labor Market,” Journal of Beijing Administrative College 1 (2019): 93-103.

 

34. Zhu Qing and Lei Miaomiao, “The Natural Choice of Judicial Protection of Rural Women’s Land Rights and Interests: Taking ‘Out-married Women’ as the Research Object,” Gansu Social Sciences 5 (2019): 134.

 

35. Wu Fan and Liu Liguang, “Measuring Social Gender Equality: International Indexes and China’s Gender Development,” Nankai Journal (Philosophy, Literature and Social Science Edition) 4 (2020): 77-87.

 

36. YuFan Stephanie Wang, “The Triumph of Confucianism: How a Subjugated Legal System is Failing a Generation of Chinese Women and Girls,” 15 Cardozo Journal of Law & Gender 3 (2009): 691-720.

 

37. Wu Changzhen, “Focusing on Protection is the Basic Spirit of the Women’s Law,” Popular Tribune 8 (1992): 25-26.

 

38. Article 32 of the Women’s Law (2018) stipulates that women enjoy equal rights with men in terms of rural land contract management, income distribution by collective economic organizations, use of land expropriation or compensation for expropriation, and use of homesteads, but it does not specify the definition of members of collective economic organizations.

 

39. Article 2 of Japan’s Child Care and Family Care Leave Law (1991).

 

40. Zheng Yumin, “Research on Promoting the Establishment of a Gender Equality Evaluation Mechanism in Chinese Law,” Journal of Shandong Women’s University 2 (2016): 76-81.

 

41. Su Yongqin, “Reasons, Best Modes and Basic Functions of the Compilation of the Chinese Civil Code,”Journal of Beihang University (Social Science Edition) 1 (2018): 2-3.

 

42. For example, the Measures of Tibet Autonomous Region for the Implementation of the Law of the People’s Republic of China on the Protection Women’s Rights and Interests (2017), Measures of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region for the Implementation of the Law of the People’s Republic of China on the Protection Women’s Rights and Interests (2010), Measures of Beijing Municipality for Implementing the Law of the People’s Republic of China on the Protection of Women’s Rights and Interests (2009), Measures of Shandong Province for the Implementation of the Law of the People’s Republic of China on the Protection Women’s Rights and Interests (2009), Measures of Henan Province for the Implementation of the Law of the People’s Republic of China on the Protection Women’s Rights and Interests (2008).

 

43. Xie Qing and Zhang Yirong, “What is the Significance of Prohibiting Sexual Harassment,“ China Report 10 (2005): 50-52.

 

44. Li Yong, “The Origin and Development of China’s Anti-Sexual Harassment Legislation,” Journal of Qinghai Normal University (Philosophy and Social Sciences Edition) 4 (2020): 35-42.

 

45. “The Third Survey Report on the Social Status of Chinese Women” .

 

46. Article 1011 of the Civil Code includes provisions on sexual harassment in the Chapter “Right to Life, Right to Body, and Right to Health” of Part IV: Personality Rights. According to the “Notice by the Supreme People’s Court of Adding Causes of Action in Civil Cases “(Law [2018] No. 344), the Regulations on Causes of Action for Civil Cases adds a third-level paragraph after “348. Disputes over the liability of educational institutions” in Part IX “Disputes over Tort Liability,“ which is “Part 348, para. 1: Dispute over liability for damage from sexual harassment.”

 

47. U.S. case Oncale v. Sundowner Offshore Services, Inc, 523 U.S.75 (1998).

 

48. U.S. case Meritor Saving Bankv.Vinson.

 

49. Japan’s “Guide to Measures to be Taken in Employment Management for Problems Arising from Employers’Words and Actions in the Workplace.“

 

50. (2019) Yu 16 Final Civil No. 4647 Judgment. The first-instance judge and the second-instance judge made completely different judgments. Regarding whether sending text messages and making phone calls constituted sexual harassment, the first-instance judge considered that it did not constitute sexual harassment, while the second-instance judge considered it did.

 

51. Cao Yanchun and Liu Xiufen, “On Burden of Proof in Workplace Sexual Harassment Cases, and on Burden of Proof Sharing from the Perspective of Presumption,” Law Science Magazine 6 (2009): 10.

 

52. Min Jie and Guo Li, “Gender Examination of Rural Land System in the Context of Rural Revitalization,”Journal of Chinese Women’s Studies 3 (2020): 88-89.

 

53. Article 1011 of the Civil Code includes provisions on sexual harassment in the Chapter “Right to Life, Right to Body, and Right to Health” of Part IV: Personality Rights. According to the “Notice by the Supreme People’s Court of Adding Causes of Action in Civil Cases “(Law [2018] No. 344), the Regulations on Causes of Action for Civil Cases adds a third-level paragraph after “348. Disputes over the liability of educational institutions” in Part IX “Disputes over Tort Liability,” which is “Part 348, para. 1: Dispute over liability for damage from sexual harassment.”

 

54. Zhao Guilong, “Disputes over “Out-married Women: Judicial Avoidance in the Face of Governance Difficulties,” Journal of Law Application 7 (2020): 50-54.

 

55. Article 24 of the Measures of Guangdong Province for the Implementation of the Law of the People’s Republic of China on the Protection Women’s Rights and Interests stipulates, “A woman who is a member of a rural collective economic organization, if her household registration remains at the location of the original rural collective economic organization after marriage, or where her household registration remains at the husband’s home after divorce or widowhood, and if she fulfills the obligations of the collective economic organization’s charter, shall enjoy equal rights and interests with other members of the rural collective economic organization in terms of land contracted management, income distribution of the collective economic organization, equity distribution, use of land expropriation or compensation for expropriation, and the use of homesteads. Children who meet the maternity regulations and whose household registration is in the same rural collective economic organization as the women, if they fulfill the obligations of the collective economic organization’s charter, shall enjoy the rights and interests specified in the preceding paragraph.”

 

56. Article 16 of the Measures of Liaoning Province for the Implementation of the Law of the People’s Republic of China on the Protection Women’s Rights and Interests (2020), Article 36 of the Regulations of Jiangsu Province on the Women’s Protection of Rights and Interests (2020), and Article 29 of the Regulations of Tianjin Municipality on the Protection of Women’s Rights and Interests (2016).

 

57. Yang Li and Zhang Yongying, “Between Institutional Guarantee and Traditions and Customs: An Analysis of Village Leaders’ Perspective on the Protection of Women’s Rights and Interests in the Confirmation, Registration and Certification of Rights to Rural Contracted Land,” Journal of Chinese Women’s Studies 3 (2020): 103.

 

58. Article 48 of the Constitution: Women in the People’s Republic of China enjoy equal rights with men in the fields of politics, economy, culture, society and family life. The state protects women’s rights and interests, practices equal pay for equal work for men and women, and trains and selects women cadres.

 

59. Article 13 of the Labor Law overlaps with Article 23 of the Women’s Law, and Article 5 of the Special Rules overlaps with Article 27 of the Women’s Law.

 

60. Article 2 of the Social Insurance Law: The state establishes social insurance systems such as basic endowment insurance, basic medical insurance, work-related injury insurance, unemployment insurance, maternity insurance, etc., to protect citizens’ right to obtain material assistance from the state and society in accordance with the law in the event of old age, illness, work-related injury, unemployment, and childbirth.

 

61. Article 24 of the Family Planning Law: The state establishes and improves social security systems such as basic endowment insurance, basic medical insurance, maternity insurance and social welfare to promote family planning.

 

62. “The All-China Women’s Federation Issues Ten Cases of Protecting the Rights and Interests of Women and Children according to Law,” China Court, December 5, 2015.

 

63. Cao Weiwei and Du Xinxuan, “The Path to the Construction of a Female-Friendly Maternity Guarantee Legal System in the Transition of Population Policy,” 11.

 

64. Liu Bohong et al., “A Brief Summary of the 36th Session of the UNCEDAW of the United Nations,” Journal of Chinese Women’s Studies 6 (2006): 67.

 

65. According to Article 3 of the Measures of Shaanxi Province for the Implementation of the Law of the People’s Republic of China on the Protection Women’s Rights and Interests, “All forms of discrimination against women based on gender-based distinctions, exclusions or restrictions that impede equality between men and women shall be eliminated, except for measures taken for the special protection of women.”

 

66. Article 48 of the Constitution; Article 1 of The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women interprets “discrimination against women” as: any distinction, exclusion or restriction made on the basis of sex which has the effect or purpose of impairing or nullifying the recognition, enjoyment or exercise by women, irrespective of their marital status, on a basis of equality of men and women, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural, civil or any other field.

 

67. UNCEDAW, Concluding observations on the combined fifth and sixth periodic reports of China, UN Doc CEDAW/C/CHN/CO/6, August 25, 2006, para. 10. It is recommended that the state parties strive to understand the meaning of substantive equality and non-discrimination in accordance with the requirements of the Convention, and define discrimination against women, including direct and indirect discrimination, in domestic laws in accordance with Article 1 of the Convention. CEDAW, Concluding observations on the combined seventh and eighth periodic reports of China, UN Doc CEDAW/C/CHN/CO/7-8, November 14, 2014, para. 13.

 

68. Lyu Qiuhong and Guo Huimin, “A Brief Analysis of the Definition of Sex Discrimination in Legal Texts,”Jianghuai Tribune 3 (2008): 99.

 

69. Article 2 of the Notice: Gender discrimination in the recruitment process in job market is prohibited in accordance with the law. In the process of drafting recruitment plans, publishing recruitment information, and recruiting staff, all types of employers and human resources service agencies shall not put limitations on gender (except for the prohibited labor for female employees as stipulated by the state) or give priority to a gender, shall not restrict women from seeking employment, refuse to hire women on the grounds of gender, shall not inquire about women’s marriage and childbirth status, shall not use pregnancy tests as a physical examination item, shall not use restriction of childbearing as an employment condition, and shall not raise employment standards for women in a differentiated manner. State-owned enterprises and public institutions, public personnel service agencies and human resources service agencies affiliated to all departments should take the lead in abiding by the law and resolutely prohibit gender discrimination in employment.

 

70. Article 26 of the Women’s Law: “Any unit shall, according to the characteristics of women, protect the safety and health of women at work and labor according to the law, and shall not arrange work and labor that are not suitable for women. Women shall receive special protection during menstruation, pregnancy, childbirth and breastfeeding.”

 

71. Data of the Seventh National Population Census.

 

72. Lin Jianjun, Research on Basic Issues of the Women’s Law (Beijing: China Social Sciences Press, 2007).

 

73. Legal Affairs Committee of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, Interpretation of the Law on Protecting Women’s Rights and Interests (Beijing: Law Press · China, 2005).

 

74. “Pregnant and hospitalized female manager was paid lower and then dismissed: who is brazenly trampling on the labor law?”.

 

75. (2021) Beijing 0102 Civil First Instance Judgment No. 3985: The court held that the employer’s arrangement of business trips, reduced wages, and public criticism during pregnancy of the party did not constitute employment discrimination; See (2021) Beijing 03 Civil Final Judgment No. 6702: The court held that the employer’s arrangement of continuous business trips, weakening of the party’s role, higher leave approval standards, arrears of wages and maternity allowances, modification of email passwords, and removal from some WeChat groups after pregnancy of the party did not constitute employment discrimination.

 

76. According to the “Outline for the Development of Women (2011-2020)” (VII): At present, a complete legal system to protect women’s rights and promote gender equality has been formed, based on the Constitution, with the Women’s Law as the main body, and supplemented by various national standalone laws and regulations, local regulations and government regulations. The promulgation and amendment of laws and regulations, such as the Civil Code, Labor Contract Law, Election Law, Organic Law of Villagers’ Committees, Rural Land Contract Law, Law on Protecting Women’s Rights and Interests, and Special Provisions on Labor Protection for Female Employees, has made clear provisions on women’s property rights, legal rights and interests of women workers, women’s rights and interests in land contracting, and female employees’ health rights and interests, making the system of laws and regulations for safeguarding women’s rights and interests and equality between men and women more complete.

 

77. For example, Articles 5 to 10 of the Special Rules stipulate in detail the reproductive rights and interests of female employees.

 

78. For example, Article 27 of the Regulations of Tianjin Municipality on the Protection of Rights and Interests of Women stipulates, “The employers shall protect the rights and interests of female employees during marriage, pregnancy, childbirth, and breastfeeding. Except for statutory reasons, they shall not directly or subtly implement the following acts against female employees: (1) Cancellation, reduction, and deduction of wages and welfare benefits; (2) Restriction or deprivation of normal rights and interests in promotion, professional and technical title evaluation, on-the-job learning, etc.; (3) No return to the original post after the pregnancy vacation period expires, except when the female employee herself agrees; (4) Change to a job-waiting person, or rescind the labor contract or employment contract, unless the female employee proposes to do so.”

 

79. For example, (2019) Tianjin 0112 Civil First Instance Judgement No. 5335, (2018) Chongqing 0108 Civil First Instance Judgement No. 20827, etc..

 

80. For example, contents in the Civil Code, Labor Law, Law on Maternal and Infant Health Care, and Criminal Law that are related to the protection of women’s rights and interests.

 

81. For example, the Regulations Concerning the Labor Protection of Female Staff and Workers in 1988 (expired), the Regulations on Prohibited Labor for Female Employees in 1990, the Regulations on the Health Work of Female Employees in 1993, the Trial Measures for Maternity Insurance for Enterprise Employees in 1994, and the Trial Measures for Work-related Injury Insurance for Enterprise Employees in 1996, as well as the Regulations on Work-related Injury Insurance in 2003, Regulations on Labor Security Supervision in 2004 and other administrative regulations related to women’s rights and interests.

 

82. For example, Measures of Heilongjiang Province for the Implementation of the Law of the People’s Republic of China on the Protection Women’s Rights and Interests, Measures of Sichuan Province for the Implementation of the Law of the People’s Republic of China on the Protection Women’s Rights and Interests, Measures of Hunan Province for the Implementation of the Law of the People’s Republic of China on the Protection Women’s Rights and Interests, and other local regulations.

 

83. Article 2 of the Women’s Law, for example, refers to Article 48 of the Constitution. Also see Xue Ninglan, “The Structure of the Legal Protection System for Women’s Rights in China,” Journal of China Women’s University 4 (2008): 25.

 

84. For example, a 2017 Audi ad for used cars compared women to “used cars.” At the wedding, the mother-in-law examines the bride’s nose, ears, teeth and chest as if she is an animal, and finally the mother-in-law makes an OK gesture. There are other similar ads.

 

85. Guo Jianmei, “On the Status and Characteristics of the Women’s Law,” 13.

 

86. Dang Rihong and Li Mingshun, “The Women’s Law from Multiple Perspectives,” Qiusuo 3 (2007): 99.

 

87. On the basis of Article 47 of the previous Women’s Law (1992), Article 51 of the Women’s Law (2005) adds “the state shall implement the pre-marital health care system and the health care system during pregnancy and childbirth, and develop the cause of maternal and child health care. People’s governments at all levels shall take measures to ensure women’s access to family planning technical services and to improve women’s reproductive health.”

 

88. Article 128 of the Civil Code stipulates, “Where the law has special provisions on the protection of the civil rights of minors, the elderly, the disabled, women, consumers, etc., such provisions shall be followed.”

 

89. Yuan Jinxiu, Research on the Legal System for the Protection of Women’s Rights and Interests (Beijing: People’s Publishing House, 2007).

 

90. Xu Anbiao, “The Mission of China’s Local Legislation in the New Era: Grasp the Law of Local Legislation and Improve the Quality of Local Legislation,” China Law Review 1 (2021): 4.

 

91. Deng Li, “Interaction between the Law of the People’s Republic of China on the Protection of Women’s Rights and Interests and Local Implementation Measures,” 61.

 

92. Yang Dengfeng, “The Standard Return of China’s Experimental Legislation: Taking the Trial Law and Interim Law as the Object of Study,” Studies in Law and Business 6 (2017): 31.

 

93. Article 11 of the Legislation Law stipulates, “The National People’s Congress and its Standing Committee shall enact a national law in a timely manner when the conditions for enacting a law on a matter of authorized legislation have been tested by practice. After the enactment of the law, the authorization of the corresponding legislative matter shall be terminated.”

 

94. Article 52 of the Women’s Law stipulates, “If the legitimate rights and interests of women are violated, they have the right to request the relevant departments to deal with them in accordance with the law, or to apply to an arbitration institution for arbitration in accordance with the law, or to file a lawsuit in a people’s court.”

 

95. Pei Hua, “Some Reflections on the Implementation Mechanism of the Women’s Law: A Commentary on the Amendment to the Women’s Law,” Jinling Law Review 2 (2005): 138-143.

 

96. Article 15 of the Civil Procedure Law stipulates, “State organs, public organizations, enterprises and institutions can support the victim units or individuals in bringing lawsuits in people’s courts for acts that harm the civil rights and interests of the state, collective or individual.”

 

97. Guo Jianmei, “On the Status and Characteristics of the Women’s Law,” Journal of Chinese Women’s Studies 2 (1992).

 

98. Huangwei, Interpretation of the Book on Marriage and Family in the Civil Code of the PRC (Beijing: Law Press · China, 2020), 229.

 

99. Deng Li, “Interaction between the Women’s Law and Local Implementation Measures,“ Chinese Journal of Human Rights 2 (2020): 71.

 

100. For example, (2019) Tianjin 0112 Civil First Instance Judgement No. 5335 cited Article 26 of the Regulations of Tianjing Municipality on the Protection of Women’s Rights and Interests, (2018) Guangdong 14 Civil Final Judgement No. 332 cited Article 24 of the Measures of Guangdong Province for the Implementation of the Law of the People’s Republic of China on the Protection Women’s Rights and Interests, etc..

 

101. Deng Xilian, Sexual Harassment and Studies on the Jurisprudence of Related Laws and Regulations (Beijing: Intellectual Property Publishing House, 2019), 188-189.

 

102. Ma Yinan, “Progress and Challenges in the Protection of Women’s Rights and Interests in the Civil Code Era,” Journal of China Women’s University 1 (2021): 11-18.