Worker, Woman, Mother: Redefining Urban Chinese Women’s Identity via Motherhood and the Global Workplace

AbstractThis paper seeks to understand the complexity of the Chinese woman's gender identity in the global workplace in contemporary China. Based on data collected via in-depth interviews, participant observation and focus group discussions, this paper has developed a framework to examine how different forces, ranging from foreign companies, mass media and the women's own experiences, commingle to define these women's gender identity. The analyses also show that young educated women in urban China have been a privileged group compared to other women in China, as they redefined their gender identity based on their own work and life experiences. I conclude by discussing the class and regional implications of these findings on urban Chinese women.