In accordance with the global trend of women’s employment in journalism, China has witnessed an unprecedented increase in women’s participation in the news profession over the last two decades. However, while accounting for more than 40% of the labor force in journalism, women still tend to occupy roles with lower pay and less power. Against this background, this article tries to provide an insight into the obstacles in the path of the success of women journalists in Chinese media. Through in-depth interviews with the journalists, three major constraining mechanisms are identified: women-unfriendly job contracts and salary systems, weak women’s associations and trade unions, and the prevalence of a sexist newsroom culture.
BerikGDongXSummerfieldG (eds) (2010) Gender, China and the World Trade Organization: Essays from Feminist Economics. New York: Routledge.
2.
ChenCZhuJHWuW (1998) The Chinese Journalist. In: WeaverD (ed.) The Global Journalist: News People around the World. Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press, pp. 9–30.
3.
ChenY (2009) Negotiating fragmented women’s news: state, market and feminism in contemporary Chinese media. Asian Journal of Communication19(1): 97–115.
4.
ChoSDavenportLD (2007) Gender discrimination in Korean newsrooms. Asian Journal of Communication17(3): 286–300.
5.
De BruinMMRossK (eds) (2004) Gender and Newsroom Cultures: Identities at Work. Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press.
6.
Djerf-PierreM (2005) Lonely at the top: gendered media elites in Sweden. Journalism6(3): 265–290.
7.
FincherLH (2014) Leftover Women: The Resurgence of Gender Inequality in China. London: Zed Books.
8.
FrohlichRRLafkySA (eds) (2008) Women Journalists in the Western World. Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press.
HeZChenHL (1998) The Chinese Media: A New Perspective. Hong Kong: Pacific Century Press.
12.
HershatterG (2004) State of the field: women in China’s long twentieth century. The Journal of Asian Studies63(4): 991–1065.
13.
International Women’s Media Foundation (IWMF) (2011) Global Report on the Status of Women in the News Media. Available at: http://iwmf.org/pdfs/IWMF-Global-Report.pdf (accessed 27 January 2016).
14.
JiaYF (2001) Do women truly ‘Halve the Sky’? Survey and report of current status of female media workers in Shanghai. Shanghai Journalism Review11: 16–22.
15.
KimKH (2006) Obstacles to the success of female journalists in Korea. Media, Culture & Society28(1): 123–141.
16.
LeeCCHeZHuangY (2006) Chinese party publicity Inc.: conglomerated: the case of the Shenzhen Press Group. Media, Culture & Society28(4): 581–602.
17.
LinF (2010) Research report: a survey report on Chinese journalists in China. The China Quarterly202: 421–434.
18.
NorthL (2009) The Gendered Newsroom: How Journalists Experience the Changing World of Media. Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press.
19.
NorthL (2014) The gender of ‘Soft’ and ‘Hard’ news. Journalism Studies. Epub ahead of print 8 December. DOI: 10.1080/1461670X.2014.987551.
20.
RossK (2001) Women at work: journalism as en-gendered practice. Journalism Studies2(4): 531–544.
21.
RossKCarterC (2011) Women and news: a long and winding road. Media, Culture & Society33: 1148–1165.
22.
Shanghai Journalists Association (SJA) (2014) Survey and report of women journalists in Shanghai in 2013. Shanghai Journalism Review3: 35–42.
23.
ShenB (2014) Shen Bing’s Own Account: My Story with Zhou Yongkang. Hong Kong: Biaodi Press.
24.
SparksC (1991) Goodbye, Hildy Johnson: the vanishing “Serious Press”. In: DahlgrenPC. SparksC (eds) Communication and Citizenship. London: Routledge, pp. 58–74.
25.
SparksCSplichalS (1989) Journalistic education and professional socialization. Gazette43(1): 31–52.
26.
SpiresAJ (2011) Contingent symbiosis and civil society in an authoritarian state. American Journal of Sociology117(1): 1–45.
27.
SteinerL (1998) Newsroom accounts of power at work. In: CarterCBranstonGAllanS (eds) News, Gender and Power. London: Routledge, pp. 145–159.
28.
SvenssonMWangH (2014) Gendering investigative journalism: norms and practices inside and outside the newsroom. In: SvenssonMSatherEZhangZ (eds) Chinese Investigative Journalists’ Dreams: Autonomy. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, pp. 91–110.
29.
TsuiCLeeF (2012) Trajectories of women journalists’ careers in Hong Kong. Journalism Studies13(2): 370–385.
30.
Van ZoonenL (1994) Feminist Media Studies. London: Sage.
31.
Van ZoonenL (1998a) A heroic, unreliable, professional marionette (M/F): structure, agency and subjectivity in contemporary journalisms. European Journal of Cultural Studies1(1): 123–143.
32.
Van ZoonenL (1998b) One of the girls? The changing gender of journalism. In: CarterCBranstonGAllanS (eds) News, Gender and Power. London: Routledge, pp. 33–46.
33.
WangH (2012) On ‘Journalism Feminization’ in the context of media commercialization: discussing the obstacles for female media workers striving for gender equality. Shanghai Journalism Review12: 26–33.
34.
WangZ (2005) ‘State Feminism’? Gender and socialist state formation in Maoist China. Feminist Studies31(3): 519–550.
35.
ZhaoYZ (2000) From commercialization to conglomeration: the transformation of the Chinese press within the orbits of the party state. Journal of Communication50(2): 3–26.
36.
ZhengBChenX (2004) Journalists’ views on paid journalism: a survey on Chinese journalists’ professional ethics. Shanghai Journalism Review5: 20–22.
