ABSTRACT
This chapter extends the theoretical discussion to gender research in management science and organization studies, and navigates its possible application in the Chinese context. The approach is apt to synthesize the diverse strands of gender and organization arguments and provides a renewed economic interpretation of the theories. Given its Western orientation, there is an issue of validity in applying the well-established research on women in management to the Chinese case. Notably in the case of the glass ceiling, it is evident that situations concerning the phenomenon can vary across national contexts. The contextual differences potentially challenge the application of a Western-oriented approach in non-Western settings. Without overlooking the differences across national settings, cultural theory in economics and management science are examined to prepare the application of the identity framework to the Chinese context. The resultant framework, developed on the basis of the economics of identity and the economics of culture, acknowledges the complexity underlying the notion of culture and allows culture to be defined in terms of specific contexts. This aspect highlights the additional significance of the theoretical framework and its flexibility in different settings.
