Moving Alone?: Changing Gender Norms in China

Meng Sha Luo

The study uses hierarchical linear models to (1) explore the general cohort patterns of gender norms in four dimensions (ability and work dimensions for the public sphere, and division and marriage dimensions for the private sphere) and (2) examine how cohort replacement effects and socioeconomic status (SES) affect the gender norms of men and women to different extents (N=45,949). It indicates a clearly different pattern for men and women: cohort replacement effects and SES have a much larger positive effect for women than for men. It also reveals a small, negligible gender gap in all the gender norm dimensions for the pre-Reform era cohorts and an increasingly widening gender gap for the Reform era cohorts, a gap that is largely attributable to men’s laggard status in terms of advancing egalitarian gender ideologies. This study highlights the importance and urgency of further improving women’s educational level and increasing women’s bargaining power

See extended abstract

 Presented in Session 215. Gender and Families