Are Women Accepted at Work? Gender Discrimination in Chinese Firms

To what extent is women's employment accepted in modern Chinese firms? Drawing on pooled 2017 and 2021 nationally representative Chinese General Social Survey (CGSS) data, this article estimates the socioeconomic predictors and prevalence of the belief that women should be stay-at-home wives instead of working in Chinese firms. The results illustrate that women in Chinese firms have socioeconomic resources commensurate with men, but they remain targeted by the persistent patriarchal belief that women should marry and be relegated to the household instead of work. Contrasting against conventional accounts of private firms as anti-discriminatory, private firm workers are observed to believe that women should be stay-at-home wives instead of working more than state firm workers. In particular, women workers are more likely to resist the traditional belief that women should be stay-at-home wives instead of working, whereas men appear more likely to endorse this belief, especially in private firms. The results suggest that women are not simply passive recipients of patriarchal beliefs, but exhibit a willingness to challenge their symbolic boundaries and reject traditional expectations of unequal gender relations in the workplace.