A world of one’s own? Changed employment patterns and transformed views on work among Chinese women since 1900.

• The great majority of Chinese women have all through their lives worked and contributed to the family economy. Before the Communist revolution the Confucian ideal stated that women should be secluded in the realm of the family, though this was only possible for women in well-off families. Women that participated in paid labour outside their home often met with prejudice, something that changed in the 1950’s when it became everybody’s right and duty to participate in paid employment (see for instance Rofel, 1999). Women then found pride and a new identity in being workers, very much in tune with the demand of the CCP.As a consequence of the competitive labour market brought on by the economic reforms many female workers have been laid-off, dismissed and/or have problems finding employment. Many in the generations that was brought up to first and foremost be good workers found this new situation more than challenging. The younger generations of women that have recently entered the labour market seem to have yet another view on employment, not seeing work and being workers as their sole identity, but as the means to support themselves economically and have a fulfilling life elsewhere. With this paper I want to give examples of changes women have met at the labour market and how views on the meaning of paid employment have been transformed since early 1900, mainly by introducing to you some of my informants, born 1945-1985, but also by giving examples from secondary sources concerning women born in earlier years.

Nyckelord

Chinese women

Employment

Sinology

Sinologi

Publikations- och innehållstyp

vet (ämneskategori)

kon (ämneskategori)