Gender Discrimination at Work in Urban China: The Paradox of Equality and Difference in the Women’s Liberation Movement

This book explores gender discrimination and women’s movements in China - from the May Fourth movement to present day. It critically examines the dynamics of the personal and political, or ’home’ and ’work’, and the role this discourse plays in women’s lives.

The book looks at women’s ’work’ within the contested field of a gender power struggle both in the politics and society in China. Patterns of employment for women have evolved over the years and women have continued to face new challenges at home and outside as the boundaries between the political and personal blurs. This book analyses the birth of feminism in China, its amalgamation with Marxism to take the form of the women’s liberation movement propagated by the party and state and its impact on shaping contemporary Chinese women. It also discusses the theoretical and practical trajectory of women’s liberation movement and the changing ideas on women and gender in contemporary China.

The book will be of interest to students and researchers of gender studies, political sociology, Chinese studies, sociology of work and industry, history of women’s work in China, labour history, gender inequality and discrimination in the workplace in China.

Usha Chandran is an Assistant Professor at CCSEAS, Jawaharlal Nehru University and Honorary Fellow, at the Institute of Chinese Studies. She holds a PhD in Chinese on Gender issues in China from JNU. Her major research interests include gender issues in China and comparison with India, interface between gender and language as well as popular culture and women’s subjectivity in literature.