Beijing: The Chinese Communist Party (CPC) has long portrayed the protection of women's rights as one of its achievements but studies have found that their role in public life has diminished in recent years, particularly at the highest levels of political and policy leadership.
For decades, the Party promoted Mao Zedong's famous slogan that "women hold up half the sky" as a guiding principle for gender equality. But the narrative in China's official media has shifted in recent years, increasingly emphasising women's domestic and familial roles, according to a recent study that analysed articles in the People's Daily, the CPC's official mouthpiece.
