Author(s)

Cui Huang

Department of Public Administration, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, China.

Gender inequality still exists in China. One of its reasons and manifestations is the low political participation of rural women. The data analysis of 970 questionnaires reveals that current political participation of rural women is characterized by low number, lack of motivation and organization, and self-interest driven participation. This article seeks to interpret their low po-litical participation from the perspective of neo-institutionalism. It argues that this low participation has been caused by informal institutions, such as the restraints of traditional gender concepts, women’s lack of desire for per-sonal rights and weak sense of organization, as well as by formal institutions, including imperfect policy system and women organizations in the rural are-as. Consequently, improving rural women’s political participation should start with reforming these institutions.

Rural Women, Political Participation, Informal and Formal Institutions

Huang, C. (2018) Why Low Political Participation of Rural Women in China: An Interpretation from Neo-Institutionalism Perspective. Open Journal of Political Science, 8, 250-262. doi: 10.4236/ojps.2018.83018.