Redefining ‘Labor’ in Beijing: Women's Attitudes on Work and Reform

Abstract

Feminist analyses of political economy examine both the ‘position of women,’ documenting the roles women hold in the public and private spheres, and the ‘power of gender,’ or the social factors that push or pull women into such positions. This article addresses both of these issues by assessing the labor that a sample of women in Beijing perform inside and outside of the household and the factors causing them to adjust their roles in each. Women's perceptions on present and future employment opportunities have changed over time in response to the different stages of market reforms implemented in China. At times, the state has flexibilized and feminized women's labor by promoting policies that support the male breadwinner model and treat women as supplemental rather than primary workers. These gendered policies have not only contributed to the low value that women assign to their roles in both the public and private spheres, but have also created some unexpected economic gains for a middle cohort of women. In this article, I examine both the social and economic factors shaping women's labor decisions, using a cohort analysis of women's allocation of public and private sphere labor, perceptions of (in)equality, and attitudes toward the path and pace of reform to determine how women fare in the labor market under reform.

Keywords:

• China
• economic reform
• household
• labor
• women
• attitudes