Skip to main content

Towards a Local Feminist Understanding of Gender and Sexuality

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Gender, Sexuality and Power in Chinese Companies

Part of the book series: Gender, Development and Social Change ((GDSC))

  • 797 Accesses

Abstract

This chapter revisits the basic but fundamental concepts in feminist theories: gender and sexuality. By highlighting the historical and socio-cultural constitution of gender and sexuality, this chapter formulates a local feminist framework to account for the gendered and sexual control and resistance Chinese women experience at the workplace. It brings together Western feminist literature of gender and sexuality at work, discussions around sexuality in development studies, and historical studies of gender and sexuality in China. These are rarely, if ever, brought into dialogue, but have something to offer to our nuanced understandings of the Chinese workplace as well as global feminist theorization of gender, sexuality and power.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Bibliography

  • Abbott, P., & Tyler, M. (1998). Chocs away: Weight watching in the contemporary airline industry. Sociology, 32(1998), 433–450.

    Google Scholar 

  • Acker, J. (1990). Hierarchies, jobs, and bodies: A theory of gendered organizations. Gender and Society, 4, 139–158.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Acker, J. (1992). Gendering organizational theory. In A. J. Mills & P. Tancred (Eds.), Gendering organizational analysis (pp. 248–260). Newbury Park: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Acker, J. (2006). Inequality regimes: Gender, class, and race in organizations. Gender and Society, 20, 441.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Acker, J. (2012). Gendered organizations and intersectionality: Problems and possibilities. Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: An International Journal, 31(3), 214–224.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Adkins, L. (1995). Gendered work: Sexuality, family and the labour market. Buckingham: Open University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ames, R. (1993). Sun-Tzu: The art of warfare. London: Penguin Random House.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bachrach, P., & Baratz, M. S. (1962). Two faces of power. The American Political Science Review, 56(4), 947–952.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Barlow, T. (2004). The question of women in Chinese feminism. Durham/London: Duke University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Boogaard, B., & Roggeband, C. (2010). Paradoxes of intersectionality: Theorizing inequality in the Dutch Police Force through structure and agency. Organization, 17(1), 53–75.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bourdieu, P. (1994). Academic discourse: Linguistic misunderstanding and professorial power. Cambridge: Polity.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bradley, H. (1999). Gender and power in the workplace: Analyzing the impact of economic change. Basingstoke: Macmillan.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Brownell, S., & Wasserstrom, J. N. (Eds.). (2002). Chinese femininities/Chinese masculinities: A reader. Berkeley: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Burrell, G. (1992). The organization of pleasure. In M. Alvesson & H. Willmott (Eds.), Critical management (pp. 66–89). London: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Butler, J. (1990). Gender trouble. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Calás, M. B., & Smircich, L. (2006). From the “woman’s point of view” ten years later: Towards a feminist organization studies. In S. Clegg, C. Hardy, W. Nord, & T. Lawrence (eds.) Handbook of organization studies (Chap. 8, 2nd. ed., pp. 284–346). London: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chou, E. (1971). The dragon and the phoenix: The book of Chinese love and sex. New York: Arbor House.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cockburn, C. (1991). In the way of women: Men’s resistance to sex equality in organizations. Basingstoke: Macmillan.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Collinson, D. L. (1992). Managing the shopfloor: Subjectivity, masculinity and workplace culture. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Connell, R. W. (2005). Masculinities (2nd ed.). Cambridge: Polity.

    Google Scholar 

  • Connell, R. W., & Pearse, R. (2015). Gender: In world perspective (3rd ed.). Cambridge: Polity.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cornwall, A., & Jolly, S. (2006). Introduction: Sexuality matters. Institute Of Development Studies Bulletin, 37(5), 1–11.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cornwall, A., & Jolly, S. (2009). Sexuality and the development industry. Development, 52(1), 5–12.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cornwall, A., Correa, S., & Jolly, S. (Eds.). (2008). Development with a body: Sexuality, human rights and development. London: Zed Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Croll, E. (1983). Chinese women since Mao. London: Zed Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Davin, D. (1976). Woman-work: Women and the party in revolutionary China. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Delphy, C. (1993). Rethinking sex and gender. Women’s Studies International Forum, 16(1), 1–9.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dikotter, F. (1995). Sex, culture and modernity in China. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ding, Y., & Ho, P. S. Y. (2008). Beyond sex work: An analysis of Xiaojie’s understandings of work in the pearl river delta area, China. In S. Jackson, J. Liu, & J. Woo (Eds.), East Asian sexualities: Modernity, gender and new sexual cultures (pp. 123–140). London: Zed Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Du Fangqin. (2001). Indigenous women’s studies in a global horizon – The Chinese experience: A process that is not yet completed. Funü yanjiu (Women’s Studies), 6, 33–42. [in Chinese].

    Google Scholar 

  • Ebrey, P. B. (1993). Chinese civilization: A sourcebook. New York: The Free Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ebrey, P. B. (2003). Women and the family in Chinese history. Hove: Psychology Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Egbo, B. (2000) Gender, Literacy, and Life Chances in Sub-Saharan Africa, Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters Ltd.

    Google Scholar 

  • Entwisle, B., & Henderson, G. E. (Eds.). (2000). Re-drawing boundaries: Work, households and gender in China. Los Angeles/London: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Erickson, K. (2004). Performing service in American restaurants. Space and Culture, 7(2004), 76–89.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Evans, H. (1995). Defining difference: The ‘scientific’ construction of sexuality and gender in the people’s republic of China. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 20(2), 357–394.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Evans, H. (1997). Women and sexuality in China: Female sexuality and gender since 1949. London: Bloomsbury Academic.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fei, X. (1948). From the soil (Xiangtu Zhongguo). Shanghai: Guancha.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fleming, P. (2007). Sexuality, power and resistance in the workplace. Organization Studies, 28, 239–256.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Foucault, M. (1991). Discipline and punish: The birth of the prison. London: Penguin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gherardi, S. (1995). Gender, symbolism, and organizational cultures. London: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Govers, C. (2006) Performing the Community: Representation, Ritual and Reciprocity in the Totonac Highlands of Mexico, Berlin: LIT Verlag.

    Google Scholar 

  • Haboush, J. H. K. (2003). Versions and subversions: Patriarchy and polygamy in Korean narratives. In J. H. Haboush, D. Ko, & J. R. Piggott (Eds.), Women and Confucian cultures in pre-modern China, Korea and Japan (pp. 279–303). Berkeley: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hancock, A.-M. (2007). Intersectionality as a normative and empirical paradigm. Politics & Gender, 2, 248–254.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harris, C. (2004). Control and subversion: Gender relations in Tajikistan. London: Pluto Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harris, C. (2006). Muslim youth: Tensions and traditions in Tajikistan. Boulder: Westview Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Heckert, J. (2010). Relating differently. Sexualities, 13(4), 403–411.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hinsch, B. (1994). Women in early imperial China. London: Rowman & Littlefield.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hochschild, A. R. (1983). The managed heart: Commercialization of human feeling. Berkeley/London: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Holvino, E. (2010). Intersections: The simultaneity of race, gender and class in organization studies. Gender, Work and Organization, 17(3), 248–277.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jacka, T. (1997). Women’s work in rural China: Change and continuity in an era of reform. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Jacka, T. (2006). Rural women in urban China: Gender, migration, and social change. Armonk/New York/London: M. E. Sharpe.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jackson, S., & Ho, P. S. Y. (2014). Mothers, daughters and sex: The negotiation of young women’s sexuality in Britain and Hong Kong. Families, Relationships and Societies, 3(3), 387–403.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jackson, S., & Scott, S. (2002). Gender: A sociological reader. London/New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ko, D., Haboush, J. K., & Piggot, J. R. (2003). Introduction. In D. K. J. H. Haboush & J. R. Piggott (Eds.), Women and Confucian cultures in pre-modern China, Korea and Japan (pp. 1–25). Berkeley: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lerum, K. (2004). Sexuality, power, and camaraderie in service work. Gender and Society, 18(2004), 756–776.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Li, X. (1999). With what discourses do we reflect on Chinese women? Thoughts on transnational feminism in China. In M. Yang (Ed.), Spaces of their own: Women’s public sphere in transnational China (pp. 261–277). Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Liu, J. (2007). Gender and work in urban China: Women workers of the unlucky generation. London/New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lukes, S. (1974). Power: A radical view. London: Macmillan Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Mann, S. (2001). Under Confucian eyes: Writings on gender in Chinese history. Berkeley/Los Angeles/London: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mann, S. (2011). Gender and sexuality in modern Chinese history. New York: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Min, D. (1997) ‘From Asexuality to Gender Differences in Modern China’, in E. J. Yeo (ed) Mary Wollstonecraft: And 200 years of feminism. London and New York: Rivers Oram Press, pp.193–203.

    Google Scholar 

  • Phoenix, Ann; Pattynama, Pamela (2006) Intersectionality. European Journal of Women’s Studies 13(3):187–192.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pringle, R. (1989). Secretaries talk: Sexuality, power and work. London: Verso.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rao, N. (2012). Male ‘providers’ and female ‘housewives’: A gendered co-performance in rural north India. Development and Change, 43(5), 1025–1048.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Raphals, L. (1998). Sharing the light: Representations of women and virtue in early China. Albany/New York: State University of New York Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rees, T. (1992). Women and the labour market. London/New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rival, L., Slater, D., & Miller, D. (1998). Sex and sociality: Comparative ethnography of sexual objectification. Theory, Culture and Society, 15(3–4), 295–321.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rofel, L. (1999). Other modernities: Gendered yearnings in China after socialism. Berkeley/Los Angeles/London: University of California Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Rosenlee, L.-H. L. (2006). Confucianism and women: A philosophical interpretation. Albany/New York: State University of New York Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Scott, J. (1990). Domination and the arts of resistance: Hidden transcripts. New Haven: Yale University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shang, X., & Wu, X. (2011). The care regime in China. Journal of Comparative Social Welfare, 27(2), 123–131.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Solinger, D. (2002). Labour market reform and the plight of the laid-off proletariat. China Quarterly, 170, 304–326.

    Google Scholar 

  • Spakowski, N. (2011). Gender trouble: Feminism in China under the impact of Western theory and the spatialization of identity. Positions: East Asia Cultures Critique, 19(1), 31–54.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sullivan, K. R. (2014). With(out) pleasure: Desexualization, gender and sexuality at work. Organization, 21(2014), 346–364.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tatli, A., & Ozbilgin, M. F. (2012). An emic approach to intersectional study of diversity at work: A Bourdieuan framing. International Journal of Management Reviews, 14(2), 180–200.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tsui, M., & Rich, L. (2002). The only child and educational opportunity for girls in urban China. Gender and Society, 16(1), 74–92.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vera-Sanso, P. (2000). Masculinity, male domestic authority and female labour participation in South India. In C. Jackson (Ed.). Men at work: Men, masculinities, development, a special issue of the European Journal of Development Research, 12(2), 179–198.

    Google Scholar 

  • Walby, S. (1986). Patriarchy at work. Cambridge: Polity.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wang, Z. (2000). Gender, employment and women’s resistance. In E. Perry & M. Selden (Eds.), Chinese society: Change, conflict, and resistance. London/New York: Routledge Curzon.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wang, R. R. (2005). Dong Zhongshu’s transformation of “Yin-Yang” theory and contesting of gender identity. Philosophy East and West, 55(2), 209–231.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Watson, R. S., & Ebrey, P. B. (Eds.). (1991). Marriage and inequality in Chinese society. Berkeley/Los Angeles: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Weber, M. (1947). The theory of social and economic organization (trans: Henderson, A.M. & Parsons, T.). New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Weston, K. (1993). Lesbian/gay studies in the house of anthropology. Annual Review of Anthropology, 22, 339–367.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Williams, C. L. (2002). Sexual harassment and sadomasochism. Hypatia, 17, 99–117.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Williams, C. L. (2003). Sky service: The demands of emotional labour in the airline industry. Gender, Work, and Organization, 10(2003), 513–550.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Winker, G., & Degele, N. (2011). Intersectionality as multi-level analysis: Dealing with social inequality. European Journal of Women’s Studies, 18(1), 51–66.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wolf, M. (1985). Revolution postponed: Women in contemporary China. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yuval-Davis, N. (2006) Intersectionality and Feminist Politics. European Journal of Women’s Studies, 13 (3): 193–209.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Copyright information

© 2017 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Jieyu, L. (2017). Towards a Local Feminist Understanding of Gender and Sexuality. In: Gender, Sexuality and Power in Chinese Companies. Gender, Development and Social Change. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-50575-0_3

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics