A hoodlum can be reformed, but you cannot get a woman to give up child-bearing. The government contributes an abysmal amount of funding towards education, which has caused education to be privatized to a large degree. This has an especially negative impact in rural areas on women, as families must decide which children they can afford to send to school, with the first choice inevitably their sons. It is women's role in government and politics that provides the most salient analysis of women's status in China. Women's political participation succinctly measures the equality of women within the party, and their indirect reach on the lives and work of Chinese women.
Governmental participation is a broader measure of the status of women in China.
Furthermore, many of these detractors believe that women have retreated from the political arena willingly with the advent of market reforms. Others also cite the reforms - but as an incentive for women to seek more profitable employment. The plight of women's equality does receive increasing attention in China. Women's organizations and NGO's in China allow individuals to interact, and come to general conclusions about various social issues. These discussions produce what can be considered public space - issues that are debated separate from the state.