New Gender Dynamics in Post-Reform China: Family, Education, and Labor Market

Abstract

This introduction paper briefly discusses the five empirical paper and the theoretical theme that organize these papers for the special issue of “New Gender Dynamics in Post-reform China.” We introduce theoretically informed empirical research conducted by a young generation of family and gender scholars. Guided by the critiques over the separation and interaction between the public and private spheres occurring during China’s transition from a socialist economy to a market economy, they examine married women’s well-being, their decision-making regarding fertility, the gendered patterns of children’s household chores, female college students `transition from college to the job market, and rural migrant women’s paid domestic work in the city. Through the empirical research, the collection of articles aims to provide new evidence and enhance theoretical knowledge to further enrich our understanding of the complexities and dynamics of changing gender inequalities in the public and private spheres within Chinese society.

Chinese Sociology and Chinese Society in the Past Forty Years

In the past forty years, China has undergone a dramatic socioeconomic transformation from an underdeveloped, socialist planned economy, to a newly industrializing market economy, arguably assuming a role in leading globalization as the world’s second largest economy. During this process, urbanization rates increased from 17.92 percent in 1978 to 57.35 percent in 2016, and college enrollment rates rose from 1.55 percent in 1978 to 42.7 percent in 2016 (Ministry of Education 2016a, 2016b; National Bureau of Statistics 2009, 2016). In the meantime, the public and private spheres (i.e., the labor market and private families concerned, respectively) also show a trend of increasingly separating, which has fundamentally shaped the family and work life of ordinary Chinese men and women (Ji 2017; Ji et al. 2017).

To a large extent, contemporary China can be seen as the largest and most exciting lab for social scientists from both China and abroad. Chinese sociology itself took a turn in the 1980s and has been booming over the decades since. In particular, quantitative sociology has thrived since the beginning of this century (Wu 2011). Research areas closely related to the grand theme of China’s economic development and modernization, such as social stratification, migration, urbanization, social governance, social structure and social transition, are becoming heated topics in mainstream sociology (Xie 2018). Chinese sociologists have begun to reflect on the fast development of empirical research in recent years, particularly quantitative sociology, and to turn to a further theoretical understanding of the fundamental social changes among Chinese society after the 1980s. They intend to develop contextually relevant local theories, rather than directly applying Western social theories, to analyze data collected in China (i.e., see Li 2008). Although, with a rather short thriving period, gender and family studies, peripheral to the central theme of China’s modernization course, have remained marginal throughout the boom in “mainstream” Chinese sociology.

Focusing on new gender dynamics in post-reform China, this special issue echoes fundamental social changes and the findings of generations of sociologists, and intends to facilitate the research fields of gender and family to become part of the mainstream Chinese sociology. Thus, we introduce theoretically informed empirical research conducted by a young generation of family and gender scholars. Guided by the critiques over the separation and interaction between the public and private spheres occurring throughout China’s transition from a socialist economy to a market economy (Ji et al. 2017), they examine married women’s well-being, their decision-making regarding fertility, the gendered patterns of children’s household chores, female college students’ transition from college to the job market, and rural migrant women’s paid domestic work in the city. Through the empirical research, the collection of articles aims to provide new evidence and enhance theoretical knowledge to further enrich our understanding of the complexities and dynamics of changing gender inequalities in the public and private spheres within Chinese society.

Theorizing the Understanding of New Gender Dynamics in Post-Reform China

During the transition from a socialist planned economy to a market economy, the state has gradually shifted reproductive and care services, mainly provided by work units (danwei), back to individual families, which then disproportionally fall upon women’s shoulders (Cook and Dong 2011). The relatively integrated public and private spheres in the socialist era has thus undergone a process of separation (Ji et al. 2017). In parallel the state dominated gender egalitarian discourse yields to market logic and traditional beliefs, emphasizing individual competency and women’s traditional roles. Furthermore, owing to globalization, the neoliberal personal choice rhetoric and Confucian patriarchal traditions seem to walk hand in hand to justify the separation between the two spheres (Wu 2009; Ji 2015; Sun and Chen 2015). As Ji et al. points out, the separation and interaction of the two spheres have thus shaped women’s disadvantaged status in both the labor market and private family, resulting in intensified work-family conflicts.

It is worth noting that the term of public and private spheres was not a feminist invention. It was in fact a development from the critiques over Habermas’ bourgeois public sphere and insight from Marx’s concept of material production and social production (Habermas 1989; Fraser 1990; Landes 1998). Conventionally, the private sphere refers to personal and private family, whereas the public sphere involves political, economic, and cultural dimensions, among other factors. However, regarding this particular issue, we focus only on the private family and labor market. While there is undoubtedly a trend in the separation of the two spheres, in reality there is not always an obvious divide where production and social reproduction can be mixed or blurred (Su, Ni, and Ji This Issue; Thorne 1982). In particular, as the world enters an era of low fertility and rapid aging––which are not limited to developed societies––the responsibility of social reproduction is readdressed and coping strategies vary as well, for which different welfare regimes have provided different solutions (Esping-Andersen 2013; Guo and Xiao 2013). In the case of China, when urban middle-class families are unable to fully shoulder the reproductive duties that were shifted back to individual families and women from the state, other women are required to fill the gap. This often comes from the unpaid caring offered by grandmothers, or paid domestic work provided by women at lower rungs of the social ladder, who are usually migrant workers from rural areas.

While the boundaries between the two spheres are not always clear cut and fixed, it should also be noted that not all women’s experiences are homogeneous. Women from rural and urban areas, women from different class backgrounds, and women of different generations, for example, may follow somewhat similar or different life trajectories. This phenomenon actually points to the core concept of intersectionality, which means gender and different dimensions of social inequality, such as age, race, and class, interlock with one another to shape the experiences of women at different walks of life (Collins 1998; Crenshaw 1991; Collins and Bilge 2016). A few Chinese scholars have begun to discuss the relevance of intersectionality in the Chinese context (Su 2016; Dong 2017).

It is due to the above theoretical concerns of new gender dynamics of post-reform China that we have organized this special issue, including both quantitative and qualitative research, to provide new evidence to enhance our understanding of gender inequality within the family and the labor market, as well as how it is experienced by Chinese women of different socioeconomic background in contemporary China.

Papers in This Special Issue

Investigating to what extent the popular Chinese saying still holds, “marrying well counts more for women than career achievement,” Chen (2018) reports that the class position of husbands significantly affects women’s subjective well-being (SWB). Additionally, women’s share of economic contribution to the family negatively affects their SWB, while a husband’s share does not have an affect. Further, there is a class trench among Chinese women. For middle-class women, their personal achievement in the public sphere seemingly boosts their individual SWB. Yet, that of women from less advantaged social classes is more closely related to their husband’s socioeconomic situation. Chen’s research suggests that marriage is still a gendered institution in contemporary urban China, and men and women appear to have gendered experiences, even in terms of SWB within their family life. Further, class tends to intersect gendered experience, middle-class women are likely to negotiate with the gender norm and gain happiness and confidence from their personal achievement, although the strength of the association between personal achievement and SWB tends to be overshadowed by the impact of their husbands’ class positions. Yet, women of less privileged class status seem to have less leverage to negotiate with the traditional gender role division of the family and depend on this model for financial, as well as subjective, well-being.

Qian and Jin (2018) are among the very first few scholars to tackle gender inequality issues shortly after the implementation of the comprehensive two-child policy in China (Wu, Ye, and He 2014; Ji et al. 2016; Zhao 2016). In examining the role of couple dynamics in shaping women’s fertility autonomy, they find that women with low marital power are less likely to resist the childbearing-related pressure from their husbands and more likely to have a second child, even though they have achieved their desired fertility. They also point out that women’s relative resources can boost their marital power. Their research further confirms that Chinese parents continue to have a substantial influence over their adult children with regard to their daily family dynamics. It also implies that the separation of the two spheres, women’s disadvantaged status in the labor market, and relatively traditional gender ideologies have profound impacts on the private lives of women.

Hu (2018) investigates the gendered household chore patterns among Chinese children, in relation to the gender of the parent, siblings, and extended family members. Influenced by but going beyond the demand-and-supply model of household labor in new home economics, Hu demonstrates an intricate gender-cum-age pecking order of household chore patterns among Chinese children. For example, a mother’s absence leads to an increase in the time her children spend doing housework. In contrast, the presence of the father, especially nonworking fathers, results in an increase in the time spent doing housework, specifically for female children. Having younger or older siblings of different sexes also has an affect on the different household chores assumed by boys and girls. Dissimilar to the expectations of the traditional patriarchal hierarchy, grandparents do not increase the demand but rather the supply of household labor. Hu’s research suggests in the context of the two-sphere separation trend in post-reform China, where dual-earner families are the norm and with the state privatizing domestic work, such gendered patterns can be aggregated even during early socialization, particularly considering that the domestic labor of children can substitute that of adults within the private family in contemporary China. This research also implies that, in addition to age and generation related factors shaping women’s experiences, sibling order can also influence girls’ gendered treatment within the private family.

He and Zhou (2018) further study how women’s education and occupation (i.e., fields of study and job entry) are connected in the public sphere. They report that gender segregation in different fields of study is related to occupational segregation, but that is far from the full story. Their simulation indicates that, without the sweeping influences of enduring traditional gender norms, more female college graduates would have entered jobs with higher pay, such as professional and technician roles. Further, more gender egalitarian beliefs seem to empower women to cross the gender boundary and enter high earning jobs, but this progressive belief loses its effect on men. The broader implication of this research is that, in the context of the two-sphere separation and a resurgence of traditional gender ideology, women’s advancement in higher education encounters structural and cultural obstacles to transfer into gains in the labor market. At a microlevel, stepping out of gender boundaries can help women gain in the labor market, although we acknowledge the reality that crossing such boundaries is not an easy task.

The boundary between the two spheres may be crossed or blurred, as illustrated in the qualitative research on paid care work by Su, Ni, and Ji (2018). This study enriches the theorization of the separation and interaction between the public and private spheres in post-reform urban China by investigating rural migrant women’s paid care work in the private family of urban middle-class women. They find that, for these rural nannies, the separation of the two spheres is elongated compared to urban working women. Geographically, their urban workplace is far away from their village home. The care they provide for urban babies challenges their past mothering experiences, inducing guilt toward their own children as an absent mother, and urging them to provide better care for their grandchildren in the future. Further, working among other families and developing a bond with urban babies, the boundary between work and family becomes blurred and difficult to handle at times. They also discuss the intersectionality between gender, new class boundaries, and the rural/urban divide in the Chinese context.

Brief Summary

The increasing separation of, as well as the interaction between, the two spheres and the formation of a hybrid, patriarchal, Confucian—neoliberalism gender ideology in post-reform China have contextualized new dynamics for Chinese women’s work and family life (i.e., women’s subjective well-being, their fertility decisions, their children, their education, and paid work) in this special issue. The empirical studies above draw a vivid picture of how women fare within private families and the public sphere, and the crossover between the two.

Gender norms internalized in the family and other institutions throughout a women’s upbringing can shape their aspirations regarding domestic affairs, subjective well-being, family formation, and educational and occupational achievements. Whereas, in addition to their husband’s socioeconomic status and financial resources, women’s career achievements can affect their subjective well-being and their marital power within their private family, which further enables them to stop childbearing when they do not want more children. Parents’ work in the labor market and their gender socialization within the private family can shape the housework patterns of both boys and girls, resulting in a reproduction of gendered patterns over generations. Further, women of different class backgrounds and rural/urban origins also experience gender as a social institution differently. The private families of middle-class women can become a workplace for women from less advantaged class backgrounds; without such domestic help, middle-class women can face even more severe work-family conflicts, which can negatively affect their position in the labor market as well as their power within their marriage and family.

This special issue contributes to gender studies and feminist literature by demonstrating how different groups of women fair in their family and work life and how their gendered experiences intersect with contextually relevant lines of social inequality in a rapidly changing China. The results from these studies enrich our understanding of how facets of women’s life experiences in different societies vary and converge in both empirical and theoretical senses. Although this special issue emphasizes the separation and interaction between the two spheres, examines the overlapping of the two spheres, and touches on the intersectionality between gender and other social stratifying lines as well, we did not include papers that directly investigate how women’s domestic work may affect their labor market outcomes, and how gender ideology may shape women’s behavior in both private and public spheres. We have demonstrated how theorizing the dynamics of the two spheres helps to understand conjugal as well as intergenerational relations of Chinese women. Nevertheless, future scholars should further investigate gendered experiences related to aging, which was underrepresented in this special issue.

Additional information

Funding

Research for the present paper was supported by the Program for Professor of Special Appointment (Eastern Scholar) at the Shanghai Institutions of Higher Learning (No. TP2015032) and the Key Project by the National Social Science Foundation of China (15AZD080). Professor Yingchun Ji is the Principal Investigator of the two grants.

Notes on contributors

Yingchun Ji

Yingchun Ji ([email protected]) is the Eastern scholar professor in the School of Sociology and Political Science at the Shanghai University. She has served as Guest Editor for the Journal of Marriage and Family in recent years. Her research interests include family sociology, social demography, gender studies, and quantitative and mixed methods. Much of her research is dedicated to family and gender issues in the Asian institutional and cultural context. In addition to empirical studies, Dr. Ji has dedicated herself to developing local theories in the following areas to understand the on-going dynamics of the Chinese people and Chinese society: how to understand changing gender dynamics in socialist-to-market-economy transition; how to understand the changing marriage and family institutions in post-reform China; and how to understand low-fertility in present China from a gender and development framework.

Xiaogang Wu

Xiaogang Wu ([email protected]) is a professor at the Division of Social Science and founding Director of the Center for Applied Social and Economic Research (CASER) at HKUST. His research interests include social stratification and mobility, labor markets, and urban sociology, and quantitative methodology. He has been the Principal Investigator of the Hong Kong Panel Study of Social Dynamics (HKPSSD) since 2009, and has also been leading a parallel research project, “Shanghai Urban Neighborhood Survey” (SUNS), based in Shanghai University.