Abstract:
A central area for research among scholars of women's suffrage around the world in recent
years has been the exploration of the decades immediately after suffrage victories.
The goal of "post-suffrage studies" is to understand better the ramifications of women's
newfound political power. (l) What happens to women's political citizenship once women
have the vote? How does it change the way women act on the public political stage and
the way they are perceived by men within their families and communities? How do
women political actors move from antagonists to equal participants? This paper attempts
to address the broad problem of post-suffrage citizenship identity for women in the specific
case of China. It argues that women's political citizenship in the post-suffrage period
was constrained by ideologies inherent in the campaign aimed to win their goal. Mechanisms
that had aided the women's suffrage movement prior to their victory became
counterproductive in the period afterwards.
