数量代表与实质代表:理解女性政治地位的一个理论视角

Descriptive Representation and Substantive Representation:A Theoretical Perspective on Women’s Political Status

近年来,中国女性政治地位在性别平等评估中出现两种看似矛盾的结果:在国内评价体系中持续上升,在全球评价体系中却呈下降态势。如何理解这种不尽一致的结果?以女性代表性理论为依据进行分析发现,从决策机构中的女性数量看,尽管中国的政策法规体系为女性决策参与提供了制度保障,但与国际水平相比,增长速度仍不尽如人意。如果从女性的实质性代表考察,并非只有"女性代表"才能为提升女性政治地位采取行动。实际上,自中华人民共和国成立以来,已经发展出包括政府机构、社会组织、两性公民个体在内的多元女性代表主体,形成了包括政策产出、统计监测与需求回应等有利于女性发展的多元行动机制,无论是政策制定理念还是政策制定与评估方式,均朝着服务女性需求、追求社会性别公平的方向持续转变。因此,评价女性政治地位需要一种更加开放与包容的视角,即数量代表与实质代表的"二元维度",除了依据国际上普遍采纳的数量代表指标之外,还应结合实质代表要素进行综合思考,二者缺一不可。

In recent years,there are two contradictory assessments around Chinese women’s political status.In the domestic evaluation system,Chinese women’s political status keeps growing,while in the global evaluation system,it declines.How to understand the inconsistent results?Based on women’s representation theory,the analysis of this paper found:in terms of women’s descriptive representation,although China’s legal system provides institutional guarantee for women’s political participation,the growth rate of female representative proportion is still not satisfactory compared with international levels.And in terms of women’s substantive representation,"female representatives"are not the only ones who can take action to advance women’s political status.In fact,since the founding of PRC,China has developed multiple women’s representatives(including various government agencies,social organizations,and individual citizens of both sexes,etc.),formed multiple action mechanisms(such as policy output mechanism,statistical monitoring mechanism,demand response mechanism),constantly turning the policy-making concept,design and evaluation method all towards serving women’s needs and pursuing gender equity.Therefore,the evaluation of women’s political status needs a more open and inclusive perspective,that is,the"dual dimension"of descriptive representation and substantive representation.In addition to the internationally accepted indicators of descriptive representation,the comprehensive thinking and evaluation should also integrate the elements of substantive representation,both of which are indispensable.