Another side of the same coin can be seen in China where the state exercises control over women’s bodies, even to the extent of forcing abortions. While law forbids this practise, it happens that local authorities in enforcing birth control policies carry out forced abortions even during the late stages of pregnancy. Under the Chinese government’s ‘one-child policy’, women are not allowed ‘unauthorised’ children.

According to the WHO, China is the only country in the world where more women than men commit suicide. Every year a staggering 1.5 million women try to take their own lives and 150,000 succeed. This is especially the case in the countryside where women face grinding poverty, the highest school dropout rates, and the burden of caring for elderly relatives. Woman belongs to man; this has been the pattern of women’s oppression for ages around the world.

Rapid industrialisation over many years, with China becoming the world’s factory, has obviously transformed living conditions for many women. Despite miserable conditions, migrating for work and being able to support themselves, and sometimes even becoming the family’s main breadwinner, has inevitably shaken up the older patriarchal structures. The most important change in becoming a wage labourer is leaving the isolation of the home and working under similar conditions to thousands of others. In this lies the possibility to organise and act collectively.

In November 2009, 3,000 women workers in Hainan province employed by the German lingerie giant Triumph went on strike. They demanded the bosses’ withdrawal of a 700 yuan (US$ 102) bonus must be stopped. Wages in the factory were between 500 to 600 yuan per month. This multinational company closed two factories in the Philippines last summer in an attempt to crush the predominantly female trade union. The Chinese Triumph strikers got results, and the bonuses were paid out even though the women’s demand for wages to match the legal minimum was not met. In Shanghai, one year earlier, there was another example of the growing power of women workers solving mcts exam questions, with a strike by 1,000 mostly young women at an electronics company also demanding their bonuses be paid. Although these strikes have so far been defensive in character, this is an important sign of nascent organisation.