From "Holding Half of the Sky" to "Marketing Femininity": Renewed Gender Discrimination in the Post-Mao Era

China’s economic reforms during the past three decades have no doubt generated unprecedented new opportunities for many women, yet they have also created unexpected challenges for others.  This essay is by no means intended to dispute the positive changes in women’s lives; it does, however, focus on the predicament and tribulations experienced by a significant number of urban Chinese women in the reform era.  Arguably the ongoing economic modernization has contributed to the polarization and stratification of Chinese women, as professional, white-collar women and their working-class counterparts seem to share an ever-shrinking common denominator.  While the former have generally benefited from the reform policies in terms of obtaining occupational mobility and educational opportunities, though admittedly even they have encountered employment-related discriminations, the latter have largely been shortchanged in the process of broad socioeconomic transformations due to the disregard erosion of their safety net and the resurgence of traditional values and practices. 

One of the ironies of modernization is evidenced in the fact that the much-lauded economic prosperity has been accompanied by the impoverishment of many women in urban China, a phenomenon that has become increasingly obvious since the 1990s.   And, paradoxically, the progress of women’s liberation made during the Maoist era, however flawed or incomplete it was, seems to have been compromised by the new economic development.  The prevailing political rhetoric such as “women can hold up half of the sky” and “equal pay for equal work” during that time has become outmoded, as the society in general has acquiesced to the newfound prejudices and discriminations against women, both in the economic arena and in social practices.  Contrary to the notion that poverty is invariably material and monetary in nature, this essay further contends the paucity of women’s economic and social rights can be more detrimental to their general well-being.