NEGOTIATING WITH SOCIALIST STATES: COMPARATIVE FEMINIST POLICIES OF VIETNAM AND CHINA

Abstract

This thesis contributes to the recent scholarship on comparative feminist policies by introducing the context of socialist states into existing discussion and challenging the idea of the state as the static supreme authority in regulating women. The central question that I address is what determines the level of progressiveness of feminist policies of socialist states. I explore two ways of which feminist policies of Vietnam and China differed. In general, Vietnam has promulgated feminist policies faster and more comprehensively than China during the past decade. However, Vietnam, despite its great progress in feminist policy-making in most areas, has maintained the tradition of limiting women’s autonomy in families while China has done the opposite.