Chinese People’s Perception and Opinion of Feminism

Abstract

As the global economy moves towards the direction of gender equality, feminist movements have also become more predominant worldwide, including in Chinese society. The purpose of this research is to explore perceptions and opinions about feminism and women empowerment on feminism-related articles posted on Chinese media sites. This qualitative study looks into four articles on feminism-related topics and developed a codebook to analyze the comments of each of the four articles. The findings show that anti-feminists expressed beliefs that women are not a vulnerable group and that women receive more tolerance, assistance, and care in society. Also, according to the analysis of data, anti-feminists show the tendency of overgeneralizing feminism while pro-feminism comments present clarification or de-stigmatization for feminism. However, overall 49.5% of comments were positive, suggesting an overall positive view of feminist issues.