The co-production of women’s organizations: party-building, emotional labor, and gendered philanthropic governance in China

Abstract This study examines how the All-China Women’s Federation (ACWF) and nonprofit organizations jointly shape women’s organizations and roles within China’s evolving governance landscape. Drawing on 180 ACWF-endorsed projects (2023–2025), policy documents, and field interviews, we analyze the initiatives that the ACWF recognizes as “model practices,” the social values and gender norms that these initiatives promote, and the ways in which the Party-state mobilizes women for local governance. We identify three interrelated mechanisms of co-production: (1) institutional incorporation, through which the Party-state selectively integrates social organizations into Party-led governance; (2) discursive role alignment, through which the ACWF and its nonprofit partners reinforce women’s roles as caregivers and moral educators; and (3) gendered co-production for affective governance, through which women’s emotional labor generates symbolic legitimacy and affective credibility. Approximately one-third of the projects mobilize women for grassroots governance and organizational development, positioning them as service providers who mediate conflicts and support disadvantaged groups. Fieldwork also reveals that local social organizations and Women’s Federations depend heavily on women’s emotional labor to navigate bureaucratic and resource constraints in philanthropy and maintain institutional legitimacy. By developing a gendered perspective on co-production, this study demonstrates how care, credibility, and compliance intersect in philanthropic governance. Through these processes, state and nonprofit actors transform women’s emotional labor into a resource for state legitimacy while also creating opportunities for women to negotiate their philanthropic roles and exercise agency.