CONCEPTS OF GENDER AND REPRODUCTION AND THE CHANGING STATUS OF URBAN WOMEN IN THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHIN

This is a study of prevailing concepts that define women and gender relations in China, and the effects on women's status of recent changes in such concepts. Extended interviews conducted between 1982 and 1984 with college-educated professionals and students, political and work unit officials, and factory and service workers in Beijing provide the main source of data for this study. These are supplemented with numerous articles from Chinese newspapers and magazines on issues of gender relations and their conceptualization.;Analysis of the data indicates that current gender concepts create many obstacles to eliminating gender hierarchy. The government's use of laws and persuasion to educate people on officially accepted male/female relations has helped promulgate and protect women's rights. However, unanalyzed structural inequalities in the law itself, stemming from historically patriarchal legal statutes and procedures, limit the changes effected through law. Officially supported concepts defining the nature of women and women's roles combine traditional and new models for women which institutionalize their dual burden and place constraints on their time and options. Though many Chinese accept this combination of models, women find the ideal difficult to attain, and tend to give greater attention to fulfilling traditional roles. Additionally, many officially championed gender concepts incorporate popular traditional notions of women's biological limitations and their responsibility for maintaining domestic harmony, upholding morality, and fulfilling their reproductive duty.;A common tendency to accept traditional gender concepts keeps many Chinese women from looking critically at how patriarchal notions are integrated into accepted roles and definitions of women. Political leaders do not encourage feminist activities and criticisms outside the confines of official policy and programs. Only those women, mainly educated professionals, whose personal aspirations are directly hampered by popularly accepted traditional gender concepts and relations seek further feminist changes. The changes they can make are limited by officials' resistance to give gender issues sufficient political focus. This dissertation concludes that there is a need for political programs and an analytical focus specifically directed at gender concepts and relations in order to change the gender system.