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The naturalisation of motherhood within marriage and its implications for Chinese academic women
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Xie, Kailing (2019) The naturalisation of motherhood within marriage and its implications for Chinese academic women. Journal of the British Association for Chinese Studies, 9 (1). pp. 59-84. ISSN 2048-0601.
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Official URL: http://bacsuk.org.uk/journal/journal-current-and-p...
Abstract
As a result of the one-child policy implemented in 1979, daughters born into urban households have benefited from unprecedented educational investment due to the lack of competition from brothers (Fong, 2006). In recent years, a Confucian discourse of filial piety was adopted by the party-state to tackle population risks and counter individualism, which drew on “traditional” notions of gender and generational hierarchy to reinforce the heterosexual family as the main welfare provider (Zheng, 2018; Qi, 2014). The 1980s only-child generation raised under this ideology has now reached the age of marrying, child-raising and establishing a career. This paper investigates how gender affects the career and reproductive choices of China’s well-educated daughters, particularly those working in academia. Drawing on a sub-set of a larger sample, I focus on data from interviews with eight women who currently work in Chinese universities and are at different life stages. I illustrate how, in spite of being at the top of the ivory tower, the gender stereotype that a woman’s primary responsibility is towards her family poses a major obstacle to those who seek career progression. I analyse how the existing socio-political discourse constructs a naturalised female subject that is bound by reproductive norms, and the implication of this for women’s careers.
Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||||
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Subjects: | H Social Sciences > HQ The family. Marriage. Woman L Education > LB Theory and practice of education > LB2300 Higher Education |
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Divisions: | Faculty of Social Sciences > Politics and International Studies | ||||||
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Women college teachers -- Family relationships -- Interviews -- China, Career development -- China, Work and family -- China, Families -- Government policy -- China | ||||||
Journal or Publication Title: | Journal of the British Association for Chinese Studies | ||||||
Publisher: | British Association for Chinese Studies | ||||||
ISSN: | 2048-0601 | ||||||
Official Date: | January 2019 | ||||||
Dates: |
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Volume: | 9 | ||||||
Number: | 1 | ||||||
Page Range: | pp. 59-84 | ||||||
Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||||
Publication Status: | Published | ||||||
Reuse Statement (publisher, data, author rights): | Accessed 5/02/2019 | ||||||
Access rights to Published version: | Open Access (Creative Commons) | ||||||
Copyright Holders: | British Association for Chinese Studies | ||||||
Date of first compliant deposit: | 5 February 2019 | ||||||
Date of first compliant Open Access: | 5 February 2019 |
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