The Naturalisation of Motherhood Within Marriage and its Implications for Chinese Academic Women

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.
 At time of publication, the journal operated under the old name. When quoting please refer to the citation on the left using British Journal of Chinese Studies. The pdf of the article still reflects the old journal name; issue number and page range are consistent.

Privileged Daughters? Gendered Mobility among Highly Educated Chinese Female Migrants in the UK

“…Urban middle-class parents have invested heavily in their daughters' education. These well-educated women echo what Xie (2019) described in her research as "privileged daughters" growing up during China's rapid economic development: an unintended consequence of the onechild policy.…”

“…Liu (2006, p. 501) reveals that only-daughters are expected by their parents to 'integrate both masculine and feminine characteristics, combine both inner and outer beauty, and perform both expressive and instrumental functions,' while their male counterparts are still assessed mainly by their talent, as tradition requires. In contrast to the traditional belief that "ignorance is a woman's virtue" (nü zi wu cai bian shi de), being a well-educated professional woman does not necessarily exempt her from fulfilling marriage and childbirth expectations (Xie, 2019). The rest of the article will explore whether, or how, these daughters' education, employment, and home-making overseas provide resources to renegotiate the gender expectations in transnational social space.…”

“…8-15) "modern-traditional mosaic" phrase captures 'this strange mix of traditional family values fused with a Western modern belief' (Ji, 2015, p. 15) which unmarried career women must adopt in order to create individual solutions to 'make sense of the unfair world and their continued need to make sacrifices within it' (Ji, 2015, p. 15). The social and cultural capital accumulated by "privileged daughters" through their higher education is heavily circumscribed by the "traditional" gender expectations of their natal family and Chinese society at large (Hong-Fincher, 2014;Xie, 2019). However, little is known about how these women navigate their mobility in a Western context.…”