Background

1.1 Background of the study 

Participation of females in politics represents the development of human political civilisation in the world. Apart from these, it is a necessary factor for the democracy of the national political scenario. It has been since decades that women around the world have been willing to enter politics for pursuing equal opportunity and to seek improved conditions for themselves within the society.

Focusing on China, it has been seen that from the foundation of the People’s Republic in China, there has been a great development of Chinse female participation in politics. In this aspect, there are almost 652,872,280 females that account for half of the national population in China (Olive, 2016). Despite such a huge population in China, women present in China do not enjoy the power of equal rights in China politics. On the contrary, UK’S 30% of the population ration represents women working in the House of Commons that put forwards 49^th rank in the list (Dickovick and Eastwood, 2016). Presently, in the UK a female holds the position of president and prime minister in almost 16 countries. These represent 9% amongst the 193 countries that are members of the United Nations.

1.2 Research Aims and Objectives

1.2.1 Aims of the study

The aim of the research is to examine the current status of consideration in relation to women participation in politics with a comparative evaluation of China and the UK.

1.2.2 Objectives of the study

The objectives of the research are:

• To investigate existing status of female participation in politics in UK and China
• To analyse the role of education in the participant of a female in politics
• To illustrate the role of gender discrimination in identifying women in the participation of politics
• To recommend strategies to overcome the challenges faced by the women while taking part in politics in China and the UK.

1.2.3 Research Questions

1. What is the existing status of women in the participation of politics in China and the UK?
2. What is the role of education in the participation of female in politics?
3. What is the examining role of gender discrimination in identifying women in the participation of politics?
4. What are the suggesting ways to overcome the challenges faced by the women while taking part in politics in China and the UK?

1.2.4 Problem Statement  

More than half of the British female MP and Chinese politicians have expressed that they face gender discrimination during the course of selection in the election.  Survey reports for Young women Trust have reported that almost 55% of the MP and politicians were treated in a discriminating way due to their sex like gendered exclamations while dealing in the parliament (Xiajuan and Lijun, 2017). In this context, 24% of the labour MP’S including male and female reported discrimination while 21% of then said that they have discriminated against this. The problem statement here is the gender discrimination and role of education amongst women that is influencing women in participating in politics in the developing countries.

2.1 Introduction

These sections of research deals with the present studies showing the relation with the topic under the investigation. In this context, the literature review tends to explore and justify the progress of the research leading to an unveiled solution to the question posed in the research.

2.2 Existing status of women participation in Politics in China and UK

Comparative Evaluation of Women Participation in Politics in China and UK

2.2.1 China

China is one of the largest legislatures in the world consisting of almost 2,924 seats for grabs that is less than the 24.2% that belongs to the female. However, in the case of Chinese politics, BBC noted that women population representation less than the entire political tree. After the last congressional election in the year 2012, it was only 33% of the women that achieved to enter the central committee that represents powerful politburo which denoted to only 9% (Zurndorfer, 2018). There are 25 members in the Politburo where amongst them only 2 of them are women that equal 8% of the percentage.

2.2.2 United Kingdom

The current state of UK is divided by a wage gap; so much that office of National Statistics has reported that presently there is 18.4% of the pay for the entire employee and 9.1 for the fulltime staffs. In terms of political participation in the UK, the country comes in 5^th place with 32% of women that takes part in politics. In the year almost over 200 women were elected for politics that was the highest records for the country (Fu, 2017).

2.3 Role of education

It is evident that formal education is strongly related to the political participation of women as well as for men. Meng et al. (2017) identify a range of direct and indirect impact of formal education on the political participation of women. In case direct effort it has been found that acquisition of ample knowledge and skills of communication that is necessary for debates and direct training in politics are the major issues. On the contrary, indirect impacts include the advantages of voluntary involvements in schools, clubs and other apprenticeship for politics. In the U.S, that outranks other democracies in terms of the number of women in education have persistently represented the low number of women taking part in formal politics’ with 14.3% in Congress (Buchanan. 2018). On the contrast, the minority countries such as Uganda and Rwanda had 28.7% legislators as women. In the UK almost 58% of women were selected as politics members in the year 2017.

2.4 Women and discriminatory quotas

Since the year 1990, gender discriminating quotas have been identified and approved by several states as the most effective instrument for disapproving women participation in politics. From this standpoint, the UN identified that almost 30% of the critical minority were required for the women in the group to create an impact and affect the parliaments. Almost half of the nations around the world have developed democratic gender discriminatory quotas for bringing disparity amongst men and women (Zhang et al. 2015). Since then the significance of gender quotas is considered in both liberal as well as young democracies. There are three broadly expressed arguments in this context against quotas, firstly, they offering the sense of meritocracy amongst women, secondly women are never seen as legitimate as taking part in politics’ thirdly, nothing actually changes any perception.

3.1 Introduction

Role of Education in Women Participation in Politics

The part of the study will focus on the methods used in the completing the study. The research will be based on the secondary source of study by collecting sources from a range of literature collated through annual reports, website source and journal following descriptive approach to gain an in-depth understanding of the study.

3.2 Research philosophy 

Post-positivism philosophy will help the researcher to identify the way of regular thinking that are not distinct in nature. In this context, the post-positivist approach will recognise the fallacy and error present in the theoretical study of women participation in politics. Through the use of this philosophy, the researcher will be able the deduce the theory for this study by focusing on the complicacies of gender quota issues present in the social and relational construction of the counties in comparison to the non-feminist ontologies that are inclined towards the rights of the women (Terjesen et al. 2015). By doing so, the study will explore the social realities, norms present within the political society by investigating gendered underpinning.

3.3 Research approach 

The deductive approach will be used to develop a hypothesis based on the present theory. Deductions within this research will start with the expected pattern that will be used against the experimented observations of the study by demonstrating the conclusions from the proposition (Baylis, 2017). This method will help the researcher to get hold of abundant resources within a short period of time thereby avoiding risk in process of reasoning with the theory. The deductive approach of the study will be followed by structured interviews amongst focus groups through a thematic evaluation of the study to identify the theme in the entire study. Moreover, this approach will allow the researcher to identify the codes from the review of literature that classified under the themes of socio-economic psychological and cultural challenges.

3.4 Research design 

This study will be supported by a descriptive research design through a process of systematic investigation of past events to provide a way to the present by recapturing the nuances, personalities as well as ideas that have impacted the issues.

3.5 Data collection

The data will be collected through non-probable random sampling techniques. The data will be evaluated through the use of qualitative and quantitative methods of techniques. Qualitative data will be represented in a descriptive form that will be classified into categories forming themes and patterns (Manion, 2017). On the contrary, quantitative data will be represented in tables, percentage as well statistics representation. In this context, the historical approach will be used to collect data that will be checked externally as well as internal exclusion. In due time the use of corroboration will be implemented to conduct data analysis. The population of study will be based on the United Kingdom and China wherein the target population will be around 365 participants with an age limit over 18yeards.

3.6 Limitations of the study

Evaluation of the study may show some lack of gendered support since the structure is limited to the participation of women and limited to the United Kingdom along with China. Lack of increased women sources related to the United Kingdom and China in terms of voicing their issues and inclusion within the policy as well as decision making may be a problem in the study.

Reference list

Baylis, J., Smith, S. and Owens, P. eds., (2017). The globalization of world politics: an introduction to international relations. Oxford University Press.

Buchanan, R., (2018). ‘Third wave feminism has led us to want to be EVERYTHING, amazing mothers, incredible professionals, perfect partners’: British Female Academics and the Politics of Reproduction. Brief Encounters, 2(1). pp.30-45

Dickovick, J.T. and Eastwood, J., (2016). Comparative Politics: Integrating Theories, Methods, and Cases. Oxford University Press.

Fu, D., (2017). Disguised collective action in China. Comparative Political Studies, 50(4), pp.499-527.

Manion, M., (2017). “Good types” in authoritarian elections: The electoral connection in Chinese Local Congresses. Comparative Political Studies, 50(3), pp.362-394.

Meng, T., Pan, J. and Yang, P., (2017). Conditional receptivity to citizen participation: Evidence from a survey experiment in China. Comparative Political Studies, 50(4), pp.399-433.

Olive, R., (2016). Going surfing/doing research: Learning how to negotiate cultural politics with women who surf. Continuum, 30(2), pp.171-182.

Terjesen, S., Aguilera, R.V. and Lorenz, R., (2015). Legislating a woman’s seat on the board: Institutional factors driving gender quotas for boards of directors. Journal of Business Ethics, 128(2), pp.233-251…

Xiajuan, G. and Lijun, Y.A.N.G., (2017). Women’s political participation in China. In Changing State-Society Relations in Contemporary China (pp. 249-265).

Zhang, Q.F., Oya, C. and Ye, J., (2015). Bringing Agriculture Back In: The Central Place of Agrarian Change in Rural China Studies. Journal of Agrarian Change, 15(3), pp.299-313…

Zurndorfer, H., (2018). Escape from the country: the gender politics of Chinese women in pursuit of transnational romance. Gender, Place & Culture, 25(4), pp.489-506.