Speaker: Xiangmei LI (Ph.D candidate in Gender Studies Programme and Social Work Department, CUHK)

Chair: Prof. Jing SONG (Assistant Professor, Gender Studies Programme, CUHK)

Language: English

Registration: https://goo.gl/9AovHS

Abstract: China remained a predominantly agrarian society as late as the 1970s, but it has embarked on a track of exponential economic growth and rapid urbanization since the economic reform. How gender ideology is shaped by urbanization remains less explored in the context where state capitalism is in collaboration with patriarchy, prioritizing economic development as a way to realize “socialist modernization with Chinese characteristics.” Drawing on data from the third Wave Survey on the Social Status of Women in China (SSWC 2010), I examine the impact of urbanization paths on gender-role attitudes for women and men in separate spheres. Two dimensional measures were constructed on the SSWC gender ideology scale using factor analysis. Results from multiple regression models show that urbanization paths, including migration (return migration, temporary migration and permanent migration) as well as in situ urbanization, have transformed individuals’ attitudes towards the entry of women into the workforce; however views remain unchanged pertaining to supports for women’s equality in the public domain and men’s involvement in the private sphere. Findings indicate that urbanization in post-reform China has eroded the public/private distinction in an asymmetric way, which is a reflection of pragmatic egalitarianism that only highlights women’s role as an economic provider for family.