Work-to-Family Conflict and Women's Construction of Work/Family Roles in Post-Mao China

Abstract

Purpose – This chapter explores ways in which urban women in China balance work and family demands, as the state's protective and welfare functions in post-Mao reform are increasingly being replaced by market forces, and the chapter examines how urban women's enactment of work and family roles are shaped by changing workplaces as well as by their personal and family circumstances. The purpose is to understand the impact of marketization on gender configuration through the lens of the work-family nexus.

Research design – Data come from in-depth interviews conducted between 2005 and 2007 with 115 married women in four large cities. For analytical purposes, the informants were divided into three groups: stay-at-home moms, family-orientated working women, and work/career-oriented women.

Findings – Although market reform may create opportunities for some women to enhance their personal lives, as a consequence of workers' loss of the safety net and welfare benefits, the neglect of women's reproductive work, and the commercialization of child care and child education, it has generated, for many women, much role conflict between work and family. Work/career-oriented women are able to actively engage in market activities precisely because they are protected still by the state, can afford commercial services of domestic tasks, or have strong support from their extended families.

Originality/value – Women's varying role orientations reflect more their strategies of coping with structural changes than their mere adherence to certain gender ideologies.

Social implications – The chapter calls for curbing unbridled market forces and restoring public services so as to create a family/women-friendly work and social environment.

Citation

Zuo, J. and Jiang, Y. (2012), "Work-to-Family Conflict and Women's Construction of Work/Family Roles in Post-Mao China", Texler Segal, M., Ngan-Ling Chow, E. and Demos, V. (Ed.) Social Production and Reproduction at the Interface of Public and Private Spheres (Advances in Gender Research, Vol. 16), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 139-164. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1529-2126(2012)0000016010