Being a Woman in Modern China
By Demi Guo
如今时常听到身边的女士们感叹：现如今，做女人好难。女性面临着结婚生育及工作家庭的多方压力，在争取女性话语权的道路上一直不断努力着。在中国，女青年常常被问及的问题就是“结婚了没有呀?”中国是人口大国，与人口基数成正相关的是，中国正在快速成为单身大国。一项新调查显示，去年单身人口达到2亿，有超过36%的单身女性选择不婚。 虽然男女同工同酬、男女平等的观念已得到了宣传，但女孩到了适婚年龄不婚的话，依然会被社会舆论和家庭关系所绑架。
中国传统认为女性应在家相夫教子。没收入的女性受到婚姻和丈夫的约束。现代女性有经济来源，这让她们可以选择单身生活。如今中国女性更注重情感联系，而非物质财富，多数人不会接受缺乏感情的婚姻。人口学家认为，中国现代女性的独立是未婚人口持续增加的主要原因之一。不少单身女性认为不结婚也很幸福。但女孩的家长却不这么认为，大多数家长希望自己的女儿尽早成家，30岁成为了一个结婚的“坎”，超过90%的女性会在30岁之前结婚。
中国女人的第二大特点与工作相关。在这方面，我国的特点是：女人不缺工作，但缺好工作；中国女人很勤劳，但收入很低。首先，中国女性的劳动参与率多年来都是全世界最高的。据世界劳工组织估计，2016年中国女性的劳动参与率超过63%（世界平均水平不足50%）。如果仅从此角度考虑，中国女性毫无疑问已经站在了世界的顶端。然而，中国女性有了遥遥领先于其他国家的劳动率，收入情况却不容乐观。中国性别工资差距正在不断扩大：在最近的十多年时间里，高学历女性其与同等条件下的男性之间的工资差距均呈扩大趋势。
中国女性面对的挑战和问题在长期内是无法消除的，女同胞们仍然会在回家过年时被亲戚盘问，在工作职场中面临挑战。或许通过我们的共同努力，可以给自己一个更好的未来！
China's biggest and most important festival, the Spring Festival, has just passed! A large majority of population was traveling back to their hometowns to celebrate the break with family.
At this time of the year, single women may have a much harder time enjoying this annual reunion, especially those who haven’t even found a boyfriend and have already hit the average age of marriage, which is around 26 years old. These women, more often than not will be blundered by questions such as, “Do you have a boyfriend, no? How come?”, “When are you going to get married? You’re not young anymore!”, and also the classic, “My friend’s son is quite handsome, how about I set you two up on a date?”
Chinese women more often than not will have to endure this kind of pressure from their family if they stumble back home without a man on their shoulder. So, for today’s topic of discussion we will be talking about being a woman in today’s China.
Some parents may pressure their daughters to get married.
Marriage
Marital pressure on single women in their mid twenties has become a social phenomenon in China. The term “剩女”, literally translating to ‘left-over woman’, has been coined to describe a woman in just such a position. In addition, there have been movies, TV shows, and commercials that have been found to use this term, as seen in the picture below, taken for the popular movie ‘剩者为王, Sheng Zhe Wei Wang’, or ‘Last Woman Standing’.
The movie, The Last Woman Standing, tells the story of a successful business woman who has long desired to find love but faces the pressure of marriage, and has finally met the perfect one!
To a certain extent, the pressure of marriage faced by women comes from the conflict between traditional culture and rapid development of society. In ancient China, marriage was more about to two families coming together, rather than two people. Through marriage, two people make their families more powerful, as well as keeping the family line intact. There is an interesting saying in China that a man in his forties is like a blooming flower, but a woman in her forties is nothing more than soybean residue, therefore it is better for women to get married before their physical condition begins to decline.
A survey held by the Chinese Women's’ Federation in 2016 shows that the average age of marriage in China is 26 and over 90% women are married before the age of 30. However, with the rise of female education in conjunction with increased job opportunities, women in China have started becoming more independent, and have their own attitude toward marriage. As a result, more and more women have begun moving to big cities, which are more open and inclusive.
Work
In modern day China over 70% of women are in the workforce, ranking first in the world’s female work rate. However, remuneration of Chinese women is often lower than that of a man’s, and the space for career advancement is also greatly limited. In 2014, a global management consulting provider, by means of a survey done by Bain Company found that the number of women becoming chief executives in China is only 1/15th compared to that of men. Respondents believe that the conflict between family and career is the driving factor that holds women back from landing senior management positions.
China’s female work rate ranks No. 1 in the world.
中国：China，美国：USA，英国：England，日本：Japan，印度：India
The government promotes and supports ‘wide-ranging employment’, to not exclude women, but lacks family tax benefits and subsidies. Because women are more commonly found performing most household tasks in China, they will generally encounter the ever endearing ‘family-career conflict’ that women in general face.
If you want to be a full-time mother or a full-time wife, you may feel particularly insecure without any personal wages or social security. A survey given out to thousands of working professional women showed that 60% of female netizens put their work first, as being the most important aspect of their lives. Many women put their career first, because they believe love may not be reliable, and they need to guarantee their independence.
Chinese women generally face a family-career conflict
In summary, challenges that women face in modern day China are that which many other places around the world may not understand fully. In context of Chinese culture as well as the ever growing population of professional female workers, conflicts faced by women with regard to their careers and family are paramount.
Challenges these women face from their families dealing with marriage and having children before their age catches up is also something quite unique to China, whereas in the Western world there may be more leeway and understanding given to women between the ages of 20 and 30. With the arrival of the Chinese New Year and Spring Festival, an overbearing sense of pressure begins to amount for single women in China. It is a good thing there is so much delicious food for them to enjoy while struggling to drown out the everlasting questioning about finding a man and starting a family!
