From degendering to (re)gendering the self: Chinese youth negotiating modern womanhood

Abstract

China has seen dramatic transformations in ideals of femininity since the 1970s. This article explores what it entails for young women of the only-child generation to construct ‘modern’ womanhood within a context of multiple and conflicting gender discourses. Based on life history interviews in Beijing, the article shows that both a ‘degendering’ and ‘(re)gendering’ of the female self ensued as the participants positioned themselves simultaneously as the ‘autonomous modern female’ and the ‘dependent modern female’. It is suggested that despite some commonalities with the western middle-class neoliberal girlhood, this reflects a particular Chinese ‘dual’ approach to modernity that defies a standard/western notion of modern girlhood.

Keywords:

• sociology
• femininities
• identities
• qualitative interviews
• secondary education
• East Asia