Study finds women receding from public roles
A study published in Frontiers in Sociology says Chinese official media has increasingly framed women in domestic and family roles while giving less attention to their public roles. The research examined 125,532 People’s Daily articles from 1990 to 2023 and found that terms linked to women in careers, leadership and entrepreneurship were relatively strong in the early 1990s before weakening over time.
The researchers, Jia Wang of Hong Kong Polytechnic University and Ruiyu Zhang of the University of Hong Kong, identified a growing gap beginning in the late 1990s. The study found that associations between women and private-sphere language, including family, childbearing and housework, remained strong throughout the period, while public-sphere associations declined.
Key Events
- Researchers Jia Wang and Ruiyu Zhang analyzed 125,532 People’s Daily articles published from 1990 to 2023.
- The study tracked vocabulary tied to public roles such as career, entrepreneurship, fighter and leading woman, and private roles such as family, childbearing, housework and loving mother.
- The analysis found that references connecting women to public roles were relatively strong in the early 1990s.
- A widening gap between public and private portrayals began to appear in the late 1990s.
- The study found that women remained strongly associated with domestic and family roles throughout the period examined.
- The findings were published in Frontiers in Sociology in May.