Since its foundation, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has promoted
gender equality, at least at the level of official rhetoric. Despite some
progress in their social and economic lives, women have not been able to
make headway in Chinese politics. Many scholars have studied this topic,
but due to the CCP's political sensitivity, systematic data are not
available. Drawing on a unique data set about provincial-level elites, I
quantify gender inequality in Chinese politics and test several commonly
held hypotheses. Although most empirical studies of Chinese women in
politics focus on the National People's Congress (NPC), this paper
focuses on officials in the Party-State, on the grounds that they wield
more power than members of the NPC. Female leaders of the Party-State are
more likely to be drawn from nonparty members and to occupy less
prestigious positions than male leaders. There is no evidence, however,
indicating that women and ethnic minority status are associated, or that
women face more difficulties entering more powerful branches of the
Party-State. Cross-regional analysis finds that political institutions,
socioeconomic conditions, and culture have all played some role in
promoting or hindering women's political careers.An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 2004
Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, Chicago. I
thank Louise Davidson-Schmich, Ying Huang, Marc Moskowitz, Dali Yang, two
editors, and three anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments and
excellent suggestions. Anesa Uda-Diaz has offered excellent research
support.