ABSTRACT

Following the mainstream acknowledgement of the Feminist movement in the early 1970s, gender is now widely recognized as one of the key concepts in understanding society. Whilst difficult to define, gender in social science is generally acknowledged to be ‘denoting a hierarchical division between women and men embedded in both social institutions and social practices’ (Jackson and Scott 2002: 1). Gender significantly influenced the way in which Chinese society was organized in pre-modern China and continues to do so today. Gender shapes various aspects of life in China, such as family (see Zang Chapter 4), work, education and political participation.