Women as victims of domestic violence in China

Abstract: The purpose of this thesis is to get an overview of how the Chinese legislation defines and understands violence in close relationships, to show which legal and political measurements the Chinese government takes in order to help women who are victims of domestic violence. Analysis is made on the basis of a legal perspective and radical feminist perspective. The legal perspective is based on individual rights of women, and from a legal perspective China has not satisfied the women's rights and the laws of domestic violence have been ignored by the legal system. Further, based on a radical feminist standpoint I argue that China has not satisfied the women ’s right because the Chinese communist party that is in power consists mostly of men. Namely, the Chinese society is patriarchal and the state uses the religion and culture for restriction of women’s rights. However, the cultural dicta are set by men that presenting only the men view. The method of the thesis consists of a qualitative content analysis, WPR- approach and feminist approach. These three methods have helped to explain the Chinese women’s situation on the legal theory and theories of radical feminism.