Equality In China Research Articles

Dynamics of the Gender Earnings Inequality in Reform-Era Urban China

This article examines the differential impacts of marketisation and economic development on gender earnings inequality in reform-era urban China. Based on data from the 2005 population mini-census with prefecture-level statistics, we distinguish the effect of economic development from that of marketisation on the gender earnings gap. Multi-level analyses reveal that marketisation and economic development have affected gender inequality in different ways: whereas market forces have exacerbated gender earnings inequality, economic development has reduced it. Overall, marketisation appears to be the main driver of the increase in gender earnings inequality in urban China. Implications for policies promoting gender equality in China are discussed.

Developing a feminist identity among elite female students in a Chinese university: a qualitative study

ABSTRACTThe aim of this study is to investigate the forms, significance and effects of feminist identity development among elite young women in a Chinese university environment. Based on fieldwork conducted over 11 months in a Chinese public university with a predominately male student body, this study explores the gendered experiences of eight female student leaders. It finds that there is a contradiction in the participants’ identity construction process. On the one hand, these young Chinese women construct a collective identity which is both distant from an elite identity and conforms to several traditional or dominant discourses. On the other hand, they resort to individual efforts to realise their life aspirations rather than participating in collective feminist movements. Such ways of identity construction and the presence of such a significant contradiction can point to the new space and future direction for young women struggling to achieve gender equality in China. Drawing on psychological and sociological theories in feminist studies, this study suggests that participants are actively involving themselves in global feminisms to realise their individual dreams. The study makes an important contribution to feminist knowledge by providing a non-Western, non-English speaking perspective to feminist identity development.

Perceptions and attitudes of Chinese journalists about gender equality: A national survey

This study provides a contemporary portrait of Chinese journalists’ perceptions and attitudes about gender equality, including their perceptions and attitudes about gender/equality and the status of gender equality in China; attitudes about media and professional practices; journalists’ preference for news; journalists’ ideas about the influence of media content on audiences; the role of journalism in gender equality; gender-related training among journalists; and professional practices in representing gender and disseminating the ideas of gender equality. The survey shows that 83.2% of the respondents believe media can play an important role in promoting gender equality. Journalists’ perceptions and attitudes about gender equality are influenced by intertwining factors such as gender, professional practices, and the society. Given the likely bearing of these ideas and attitudes on their reporting, additional efforts are necessary to improve journalists’ gender/equality awareness and to disseminate the id...

Educational equality in China: analysing educational policies for migrant children in Beijing

This paper focuses on the education of migrant children in Beijing. As of the late 1990s, the Chinese Government has developed several policies to address educational issues among migrant children. The present study analyses data from interviews with key education personnel in Beijing to explore the outcomes of the implementation of such migrant children’s education (MCE) policies and the reasons for variation from policy design. The data suggest that there is poorer equality in terms of education among migrant vs. local children than the government has reported. Migrant children are faced with numerous strict admission procedures for public schools. The Chinese Government has not prioritised educational equality, despite professing to do so. The capability and motivation of local institutions for policy implementation are less adequate than might be expected. Using Honig’s model of policy implementation, this research shows that the outcomes of the MCE policies are a product of interaction between policy design, participants and implementation context.

Discussion on the right of equality in China’s Constitution

Discussion on the right of equality in China’s Constitution

Massive Open Online Courses and Educational Equality in China: A Qualitative Inquiry

Massive Open Online Courses and Educational Equality in China: A Qualitative Inquiry

Textiles and the Historical Emergence of Gender Equality in China

This paper studies a unique historical experiment: the cotton revolution and its impact on the emergence of gender-equitable beliefs. The cotton revolution led to a prolonged phase (1300-1840 AD) of high productivity for women. I hypothesize that a substantial, long-standing increase in relative female income eroded a highly resilient cultural belief: women are less capable than men. I examine a period when economic gains from the cotton revolution faded. Using variation across 1,489 counties in cotton spinning and weaving, I find that the cotton revolution reduces sex selection. This result is supported by survey evidence on gender equitable beliefs. I instrument cotton weaving with the range of relative humidity within which cotton yarn can be smoothly woven into cloth. I document an initial impact of the cotton revolution on widow suicides. To isolate the cultural channel, I examine the effects of the cotton revolution under post-1949 state socialism, where both genders had similar economic opportunities, political and legal rights, and show that pre-1840 cotton weaving predicts a higher probability for the wife to head the household. I document the distinctive role of high-value work in the perception of women. Low-value work performed by women, such as cotton cultivation, does not correct prenatal sex selection.

Uneven transitions: Period- and cohort-related changes in gender attitudes in China, 1995–2007

This paper analyzes temporal variations in two gender attitudes in China: beliefs about gender equality and perspectives on women’s combined work and family roles. It uses the most currently available population series from the 1995, 2001 and 2007 World Value Surveys of 4500 respondents and a series of multilevel cross-classified models to properly estimate period and cohort effects. Attitudes toward women’s dual roles manifest neither period nor cohort effects; the population displays a universal high level of acceptance of women’s paid employment. Orientations toward gender equality manifest both cohort and period effects: members of the youngest cohort of both sexes hold the most liberal attitudes; the positive effect of college education has increased over time. Attitude toward gender equality in China displays neither a shift toward conservatism nor an over-time trend toward egalitarianism in 1995–2007, a time of rapid economic growth.

The One-Child Policy and Gender Equality in Education in China: Evidence from Household Data

This paper uses individual-level data from the China Health and Nutrition Survey and examines the impact of the one-child policy on gender equality in education in China. The results showed children in one-child households enjoyed significantly improved opportunities for education compared to children inside multiple-child households. The improvement for girls was larger than that of boys. In addition, we found no difference in years of schooling between only-child boys and only-child girls, whereas the gap between boys and girls inside multiple-child households remained significant. In particular, years of schooling for girls having male sibling(s) were 0.62 years lower than that of girls having female sibling(s). These findings suggest the one-child policy inadvertently contributed to greater educational gender equality in China.

Public participation in infrastructure and construction projects in China: From an EIA-based to a whole-cycle process

Many governments world-wide are increasingly encouraging the involvement of interested individuals, groups and organisations in their public infrastructure and construction (PIC) projects as a means of improving the openness, transparency and accountability of the decision-making process and help improve the projects’ long-term viability and benefits to the community. In China, however, the current participatory mechanism at the project level exists only as part of the environmental impact assessment (EIA) process. With an increasing demand for PIC projects and social equality in China, this suggests a need to bring the participatory process into line with international practice. The aim of this paper, therefore, is to identify the weaknesses of EIA-based public participation in China and the means by which it may be improved for the whole lifecycle of PIC schemes. To do this, the results of a series of interviews with a diverse group of experts is reported which analyse the nature and extent of existing problems of public participation in EIA and suggestions for improvement. These indicate that the current level of participation in PIC projects is quite limited, particularly in the crucial earlier stages, primarily due to traditional culture and values, uneven progress in the adoption of participatory mechanisms, the risk of not meeting targets and lack of confidence in public competence. Finally, a process flowchart is proposed to guide construction practitioners and the community in general.

Impacts of Expanding Non-grain-based Fuel Ethanol on Regional Equality in China: Using a Computable General Equilibrium Model

Impacts of Expanding Non-grain-based Fuel Ethanol on Regional Equality in China: Using a Computable General Equilibrium Model

From Men-Women Equality to Gender Equality: The Zigzag Road of Women's Political Participation in China

Men and women's equality as a focus of Marxist women's theory has become the theoretical basis for the socialist women's emancipation movement since the founding of the New China in 1949. However, the scene of equality in China has changed tremendously since the 1980s. This paper aims at facilitating a specific historical understanding of the issue of women's political participation in China and asks questions such as why the theory of men and women's equality during the 1980s appeared to be questioned? What were the key challenges before this theory and practice? Why was there a theoretical shift during the 1990s? Taking the issue of women's political participation in China as an example, we can see that the road of women's liberation has been a zigzag one and the theories and practice of gender equality have been ambiguous. My argument is that we should look for something beyond numbers and percentages when, for example, analyzing the issues of women's political participation.

Reconceiving Women's Equality in China: A Critical Examination of Models of Sex Equality (review)

Reviewed by: Reconceiving Women's Equality in China: A Critical Examination of Models of Sex Equality Li-Hsiang Lisa Rosenlee (bio) Lijun Yuan . Reconceiving Women's Equality in China: A Critical Examination of Models of Sex Equality. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2005. xi, 137 pp. Hardcover $66.00, ISBN 0-7391-1005-5. Paperback $22.95, ISBN 0-7391-1228-7. Following her "Ethics of Care and Concept of Jen" (2002)—a provocative response to Chenyang Li's "The Confucian Concept of Jen and the Feminist Ethics of Care" (1994)—Lijun Yuan in her Reconceiving Women's Equality in China (2005) restates her definitive rejection of Confucianism as a positive model for gender equity. In Yuan's examination of four historical models of sex equality—Confucianism, formal equality of the May Fourth era, substantive equality under Mao's directives, and equal opportunity in the post-Mao free market—Confucianism offers countless rationales for women's inferiority (p. 103). In her concluding chapter, "A Democratic Conception of Women's Equality," Yuan's proposed solution, as the title indicates, is by and large a liberal democracy of the Western model. Furthermore, according to Yuan, only within this liberal model is the Confucian concept of reciprocity useful to women at all. In short, to Yuan, the solution to women's oppression in China must be framed in the Western model of liberal democracy and Confucianism qua Confucianism offers primarily the oppression of women. Yuan's dichotomizing contrast between the progressive Western liberal tradition and the anachronistic, oppressive Confucian tradition, in my view, is unfortunate, since it only feeds into this already poisonous attitude of Western imperialism with the West offering the only progressive future for the rest of the inferior societies plagued by their own sexist traditions. If feminists and scholars alike are to be conscious of this sort of neocolonial discourse in a feminist disguise, a greater [End Page 288] attention must be paid to the reappropriation of non-Western traditions as viable alternatives for women's liberation. In her historical journey into Confucianism in chapter 1, "Confucius, Confucianism, and the Confucian Rationale for Women's Inequality," Yuan decisively rejects the possibility of a progressive future within a Confucian framework. As Yuan writes in reference to three contemporary revivals of Confucianism in the modern context of feminism offered by Chenyang Li, David Hall and Roger Ames, and Tu Weiming, "I will challenge these interpretations by arguing that Confucius and Neo-Confucians converge in a unified line that contributes to the notion of the inferiority of women" (p. 2). In Yuan's estimation, Confucianism is synonymous with oppressive social roles for women, and its ethical ideal of ren is only achievable for men. In particular, in restating her 2002 rejection to Chenyang Li's claim of the compatibility between Confucianism and feminist care ethics, Yuan argues that Confucian ren differs from feminist care ethics in that the later aims at eradicating the oppression of women while the former is not applicable to women who are relegated to the category of the moral inferior. As she writes, "The category of women, just like the category of small men in the The Analects, is different from the category of junzi (gentlemen). Women simply do not count in Confucius's mind" (p. 15). Differing from Li who relegates sexism in Confucianism to Dong Zhong-shu and the Cheng-Zhu school, Tu Weiming advocates a gender-neutral understanding of Neo-Confucianism in which the moral achievement of self-cultivation is available to both genders. Yuan repudiates Tu's claim by pointing to the empirical evidence in China's past (p. 16). Yuan, once again, rejects this alternative view of Confucianism as well. To Yuan, the Confucian concept of correlative dependency or reciprocity is inseparable from the concept of hierarchy, which, in turn, is incompatible with her proposed democratic model of sexual equality. As she writes, "In my view, the issue of women's equality is inevitably related to issues of democracy that oppose a value of hierarchy" (p. 22). In short, to Yuan, Confucianism seems to have nothing useful to offer to a progressive world, especially in regards to the issue of feminism and democracy. In fact...

Escaping the Westphalian Trap: Unionism and Equality in China, Mexico and the United States

With increased economic globalization since the 1980s has come increased economic inequality and a decline in union density in most countries of the world, with one notable exception being the Peoples Republic of China. The decline in unionism contributes to increased inequality. This paper will try to begin to answer the question whether a revived unionism operating transnationally can do to help reduce inequality as it did during the industrial era following World War II. To do that, this paper will compare and contrast the union movements in China, Mexico and the U.S. Part I will set out the contours of the problems the union movement faces because many employers have been able to organize themselves to escape national labor laws and national labor unions. Unions, in these three countries as well as elsewhere, have not escaped the trap set up by the Westphalian-based system of sovereign nation states which use national law to regulate national economies. Part II will sketch out some of the ways the union movement might attempt to respond to the present situation, as well as some of the obstacles such action will need to overcome if the union movement is to escape the Westphalian trap.

Tourism Employment in China: A Look at Gender Equity, Equality, and Responsibility

China is increasingly viewed as a dominant and essential component in global tourism. However, apart from ageism and gender differences, there appears to be an almost complete absence of gender-equality discussion in this industry; although China is beginning to attend to concerns about social equity. The inherent conflict between traditional values and the requirement of contemporary capitalism is placing enormous pressures on China. What appears to be different and disturbing about China is the commitment to the nation and its development at the expense of social and environmental sustainability, as well as growing regional inequalities. This article explores issues relating to tourism management, gender equity, and equality in China. There is an attempt to explore the claim that the demands of careers within a global business environment are exacerbating the challenges for women in the tourism industry. This article identifies business leaders in a range of tourism-related industries in China. The study includes surveys, interviews, and focus-group data collected in Guangzhou in 2002–2005, which may provide insight for the experience, attitudes, and aspirations of middle to senior executives. The data suggest that although economic reform and tourism growth has delivered economic gains, this is not accompanied by a similar development in terms of developing sustainable work systems in tourism. This article describes a new period of particularly dramatic changes in tourism management, resulting from new forms of production, and highlights some of the changes for organizational health and sustainability, interpreted as economic and social well-being, including sustainable work systems and the need to strike a balance between the individual, her work, and her social and community life.

Reconceiving Women's Equality in China: A Critical Examination of Models of Sex Equality. By Lijun Yuan. Lanham, Md.: Lexington Books, 2005.

Reconceiving Women's Equality in China: A Critical Examination of Models of Sex Equality. By Lijun Yuan. Lanham, Md.: Lexington Books, 2005.

Reconceiving Women's Equality in China: A Critical Examination of Models of Sex Equalityby Lijun Yuan

<i>Reconceiving Women's Equality in China: A Critical Examination of Models of Sex Equality</i>by Lijun Yuan

Development of ethnic education and educational equality in China

A comparative analysis of the statistics of the two population censuses conducted in 1990 and 2000 showed that with the development of ethnic education, average years of school attainment have been increased for all ethnic nationalities, and education has been more equalized within different ethnic nationalities. However, educational inequality among different nationalities has been widened. Although the extent of the widening is limited, sufficient attention should be paid by policy-makers.

Non-Governmental Organising for Gender Equality in China – Joining a Global Emancipatory Epistemic Community

This paper uses domestic violence activism as a case study through which to examine how non-governmental feminist activists organising in China have generated new knowledge through their engagement with international gender equality activism and global human rights norms. We examine how an epistemic community focused on domestic violence has developed in China. This community subscribes to international definitions of violence against women as a human rights issue. We show how activists' adoption of human rights norms takes place in several stages and within situated learning processes. We argue that by engaging in such processes activists have joined a global emancipatory epistemic community – one which they are currently extending to Chinese society.

Gender‐based perceptions of equity in China's state‐owned enterprises

AbstractDespite the emphasis on equality in China's state‐owned enterprises, analysis of data collected from 900 Chinese in 10 state‐owned enterprises indicated that statistically significant pay differences exist between male and female employees. However, differences between male and female employees' perceptions of equity in these enterprises were found to be statistically significant only among those employees with fewer years of work experience and those with lower levels of technical skills. Perceptions of equity were also found to be related to the job satisfaction of both male and female employees. These results are discussed within the context of the Maoist ideology of egalitarianism and the post‐Tiananmen movement toward the forging of links between employee compensation and performance. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.