Chinese women and gender: An exploratory study of attitudes about gender roles.

摘要

A qualitative, exploratory study was conducted to investigate Chinese women's attitudes about gender roles. Fifteen Chinese females between the ages of twenty-one and thirty-two, with college and above education and with less than four years of residence in the United States, participated in semi-structured interviews, conducted in Mandarin, about their perception of women's roles and gender-related stress. The interviews were tape-recorded and were transcribed verbatim for data analysis. The results indicated that these women seemed to identify strongly with traditional Chinese role prescriptions for being a virtuous wife and a kind mother. Although the participants reported a strong wish to balance their roles in family and in career, they seemed to consider their competence and accomplishments in career and other areas as secondary in importance. These women acknowledged much less gender-related stress and conflict than expected. Some speculations were made about this finding and its possible meaning, given the Chinese social and cultural context and the specific characteristics of the participants. Gender role differentiation between men and women and its psychological impact on Chinese women were also discussed. Inferences were drawn for clinicians and for future research.