Women Hold Up Half the Sky

A case study on how professional women in Shanghai negotiate the contradictions between intergenerational obligations and career development

Nicole Skoglund

• Publisher: GRIN Verlag
• Year: 2021
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9783346400680
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Marriage & Family Sociology
• Index: Social Sciences

Bachelor Thesis from the year 2020 in the subject Sociology - Relationships and Family, grade: B, Lund University, language: English, abstract: This study explores how single professional women in Shanghai deal with the challenge of negotiating between intergenerational obligations and career development. Qualitative data was gathered from 12 semi-structured interviews conducted on urban single professional women in Shanghai. Through the analysis of cultural logic, social policy, state behavior and qualitative data, this thesis has incorporated a fruitful discussion on the interconnectedness between diverse perspectives and larger frameworks. The Chinese party state has taken the initiative to exercise control over the nation's population in order to align with family policy and goals for national development. As a result, the negatively loaded stereotype "leftover women" has deeply penetrated Chinese society where single, urban and educated Chinese women have been the main targets. From analyzing marriage trends in Shanghai, population specialists have concluded that individuals are moving away from the model of universal marriage. A recent growth of individualism in Chinese society has given rise to the desiring self. A large generation of educated, independent and career-driven women have been born. China is the second largest economy and has experienced a surge of unprecedented growth since the establishment of the open-door policy in 1978, resulting in an average GDP growth rate of 9.6 percent per annum in the first two decades of reform. The open-door policy encouraged China to partake in foreign trade, opening its market to the rest of the world. China's economic reform was unique to that of the Soviet Union or other former-socialist countries in Eastern Europe as it was more pragmatic and politically stable. The reform process was not like a blueprint and instead it was, like Deng Xiaoping illustrated, like a person walking across the river by feeling the rocks in each step.