NICS Events

Personal Wealth and Traditional Roles: Women Entrepreneurs in China

Dr Minglu Chen, University of Sydney

Abstract

The paper focuses on a special group of contributors to China’s economic reform—women entrepreneurs, examining these women’s accumulation of personal wealth and their continued commitment to certain ‘traditional values’. It illustrates that, while signifying a new degree of participation in the public domain, the increased personal wealth of these women has not freed them from the traditional gendered expectation that women should keep to the private domain. However, the research also shows that wealth has lessened their burden of housework and improved their status in their families.

Speaker

Dr Minglu Chen is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Sydney. She researches social changes in contemporary China and is currently working on a project on the evolution of the interaction between the new rich and the state. She is the author of Tiger Girls: Women and Enterprise in the People’s Republic of China (London: Routledge, 2009).

This seminar is part of the World Universities Network Contemporary China Center Virtual Seminars programme. This year’s series will focus on social development and political reform from economic, ethnic and ecological perspectives with a focus on issues of fairness and equality. The series allows audiences around the world to hear from leading scholars in Contemporary China studies and to engage in dialogue with one another across geographic boundaries. Each seminar includes an interactive question and answer session across all sites.

If you wish to attend the lecture from another WUN university, please consult your local WUN coordinator for details of where the seminar is being held. Further information can be found at http://www.wun.ac.uk/chinacenter/seminars.html or please contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

General information on WUN seminars at Leeds can be found at http://www.leeds.ac.uk/international/wun/wun_seminars.html

All welcome!