ABSTRACT
The subject of the interview was unemployment, but the conversation shifted quickly—and inevitably—to the problems of women. Many of the issues that Chinese women would be familiar to a Western audience: surviving divorce, single parenthood, mid-life career changes, day-care dilemmas. The biggest story in China today is the startling rise in unemployment. The government is trying to stem the losses from state enterprises by forcing them to close, cut production or lay off unnecessary workers. In Shanghai's textile industry, for example, employment in the mostly female work force has been halved. Although women make up only 39 percent of the work force in the state sector, they account for more than 60 percent of the layoffs, according to some estimates. Women's issue in China today has some parallels with the United States 25 years ago. Inequality in the workplace, the changing nature of marriage, sexual harassment as well as sexual liberation: all are matters of relevance for Chinese women.
