From gender perspective, this paper focuses on the challenge faced by contemporary women leaders in their career development, the factors resulting in it and the approaches to do with the dilemma.This paper suggests that China’s women leaders totally present disadvantaged status quo in contrast with the men leaders, which has been concretely manifested in the leader’s position structure/opportunity of promotion and so on, and it is result of gender structure constructed by nation and society. Thus, all the factors should be considered when women leaders try to break through position barriers.The introduction part set up a basic interpretation on the significance/method/core concepts and theory framework of this paper.The first part concentrates on analyzing the historical change of Chinese women party leaders. This paper argued that Chinese gender institution goes through a historical process from "men and women are different" to "men are same with women", to the struggle for "gender equality"The situation of women leaders in contemporary China is analyzed from gender perspective in the second part. Totally, laws and public policies securing women leaders’career have been more elaborate, the career development of women leaders has seen tremendous progress, while career sexism/gender blindness and gender segregation still consists in the career development of women leaders.The third part analyzes several factors resulted in the disadvantaged situation of career development on Chinese women leaders. It is suggested that,1. It is not equal in fact even though the state tries to shape the equal social gender institution by ideology/law/public policy.2. Discrimination to the women leaders, which was resulted in the invisible ceiling effect, prevents party women leaders from leaping to higher position. Education texts reflect the social sexism attitude. Mass media consciously and unconsciously expresses the idea of social gender that women should adhere to their private field.3. To do housework is women’ s exclusive work even though that women should be equal with men has become a common sense in public, which has been resulted in the contradiction between women’s families and their careers.4. Social capital for women leaders is not as profound as men’s. Organizations will not intend to invest human capital in the women leaders in the light of the priority principle of organization’s interest.The forth part of this paper tries to propose some measures promoting career development of women leaders. It is feasible to do it from three aspects, that is, to optimize the formal social gender institutions leaded by state, to construct advanced social gender culture and to empower women leaders themselves. |