Fighting sexism on campus(2)

Leading from the front

Some universities have student groups that focus on gender issues. Zhihe Association in Fudan University is one of the few student groups in Shanghai dedicated to gender studies. Founded in 2005, the group is now run by a team of over 20 people and has around 200 to 300 members.

Zhou Yanan, a junior advertising major at the school, was the president of the club last year.

This year she is directing The Vagina Monologues that will be put on during Feminism Week at the end of May. Students in Fudan have been performing the show since 2004, but it wasn't until 2010 that they began to grab a lot of attention, said Zhou.

Each year the students come up with a different version of The Vagina Monologues, taking into consideration hot issues of the year or important matters to students such as sexual harassment and losing one's virginity, said Zhou.

Last year, the show packed out a 1,000-seater auditorium and was invited to perform in other schools.

But running such clubs has proven challenging in the past. Back in 2005, students at Hebei University founded a group called Young Ladies. Their intention was to promote gender equality and feminism concepts, but due to a lack of academic guidance, the club struggled to attract students. It later changed directions and started hosting lectures on skin care, makeup and etiquette.

Guo from Sun Yat-sen University launched a "rainbow group" last year aiming to promote gender and sexual orientation equality. With about a dozen students, the group holds educational campaigns and regular movie screenings.

In universities, feminist and LGBT (lesbians, gays, bisexuals, and transgender) issues often go hand in hand. Liang Xiaomen, 20, loved to read gay literature when she was in high school. She joined a student group on LGBT issues in college and gradually realized some of the inequalities women face.

A junior law student at the South China University of Technology in Guangdong, Liang was prompted to take action.

Last August, Liang and several other students in Guangzhou shaved off their hair in public to protest discriminatory college enrollment requirements for male and female students. In China, some universities that can enroll students in advance accept male students with lower scores over academically superior female students.

The Ministry of Education explained, after the students requested information disclosure as to why this was taking place, that the discrepancy in admission requirements is to "protect women" or due to the needs of certain sectors.

In March, prior to the annual legislative meetings in Beijing, Liang and others wrote a letter asking education authorities to stop requiring higher marks for female students to attend certain universities. They managed to get some deputies to support their suggestion but didn't collect enough signatures for their motion to become a tabled proposal.

Ritualized sexism

Growing up, none of these college students received gender education in school. While they've all experienced sexism in one way or another, they, like most people, didn't read too much into it or tried to do something to change it.

"Many of us heard teachers in middle school say things like 'girls do better than boys now, but as soon as you enter high school, girls won't be as good,'" said Liang. "We felt offended, but we couldn't do anything about it."

There are more and more students like Liang who are willing to step up, especially in Guangdong. Last week, it was reported that Zhenguang Middle School is about to launch two all-girls classes where girls would wear cheongsam, or qipao, to school and learn cooking and sewing. Liang and other college students protested in front of the school. A male protester wore a skirt and knitted to lampoon gender-based education.

"It's probably going to be a slow process toward policy or legal changes, but more people, especially women, are realizing the importance of gender issues and are joining the discussion as a result of our actions," said Liang.

The past three decades since reform and opening-up began have brought mixed results. The gender equality movement is now mostly championed by the academia and NGOs, and remains marginalized, said Xia.

Ke believes that gender education should become part of the basic education system. "I see in this generation of students a strong desire for equality, and a willingness to fight for that equality, so I am optimistic about the future," she concluded.