China's economic growth over the last three decades and the social mutation it has produced have changed the position of women in China to a degree that the old Confucian culture could never have achieved, even if it had wanted to. That transformation is the result of the rampant materialism that now animates the world's most populous nation. The gender imbalance of 10 men for every seven women in the People's Republic means that young women, in particular, are able to dictate terms for marriage in what is known as the "bride price".

This being China, that power is expressed primarily through the property market. A groom has to come with a property – as well as a car and a job. With divorce rates rising fast, the bride counts on being able to walk away with at least part of the flat or house if the union breaks up. This phenomenon has become so prevalent that the supreme court has just sought to counteract it with a ruling that in the event of divorce, the property will belong to the purchaser – that is, usually, the groom or his family.

The ruling is a symptom of an array of social changes transforming China, which may represent a greater challenge to continued solid one-party rule than the dissidents whom the authorities repress so brutally.

Historically, the country's age-old civilisation was never well known for its gender equality. Only one woman occupied the imperial dragon throne and, if the traditional stories are true, Wu Zetiang, who lived from 624 to 705, got there by murdering opponents even if, once ensconced, she pursued a feminist policy of taking male concubines and populating previously male-only rites with women. Han Chinese women had their feet bound. Equality measures were brought in at the start of the People's Republic, but their effect was limited. For all his talk of women holding up half the sky, Mao Zedong was a notorious philanderer who summoned young female members of the army entertainment unit to his capacious bed.

Today, there are still no female members of the supreme leadership body, the standing committee of the politburo. Only one fifth of CCP members are female. A recent survey of factory workers reported that20% of female staff said they had been the victims of sexual harassment.

But the change in the position of women is undeniable. Half the young people enrolling at universities are now female. Women contribute on average 50% of household incomes compared with 20% at the start of economic reform. The young women who make up the bulk of migrant factory workers earn three times as much as they would have at the start of the century and far more than they could have brought in back in the villages of rural China.

Three-quarters of female graduates are estimated to aspire to management positions compared with half their US counterparts. Chinese female tycoons are reckoned to make up half the world's self-made women billionaires. Some formidable women head major companies: Dong Mingzho, the "Iron Lady" who presides over the Gree Electric Appliances group, is known for rarely smiling at staff. "I never make mistakes and am always correct," she declares, adding: "Femininity in the business world is the equivalent of admitting women are weak."

Inevitably, the consumption story looms large and largest of all at the top end of the range. The average female luxury consumer in China spent 22% more in 2010 than the previous year. A third of the Maserati cars sold in the People's Republic are bought by women compared with 5% in the US and 2% in Europe. Incidentally, Chinese women also drink more whisky than their counterparts in the west.

In that context, the desire to hang on to at least a share in a matrimonial property was entirely natural. Given the gender imbalance caused by abortion or female infanticide under the impact of the one-child policy, falling fertility and the cost of having a baby, young women who wish to do so are not going to lose their power to dictate marriage terms. It will take more than a supreme court ruling to stop them.