At the end of the Chinese Communist Party's 19th Congress, the new Politburo Standing Committee was revealed: seven middle aged men in dark suits, without a woman to be seen. There has never been a female member of the Standing Committee. Of the 2,280 delegates at that Congress, fewer than a quarter were women. That's got some people asking whether the party should take gender equality more seriously. The New York Times wrote of women being "shut out" - but does the Chinese Communist Party have a woman problem? Of the 89.4 million members of the Chinese Communist Party, just under 23 million are women - that's 26%.
