Gender And Occupation: Identity Of Female Journalists During The Republic Of China (1920s-1940s)

Providing the foundation for women to be independent in terms of economics and humandignity,women emplyment had been promoted as the essential approach to women’s liberation during the Chinese Enlightment Era(1915-1923).What makes journalism unique is that as many other jobs it allowed the educated women to be economically indendent by working while played an important role in the women’s liberation movement in mordern China with the diffusion of new ideas.Therefore,there is great value in the research of the self-awareness and self-identification of women jouranlists as both the practitioner and advocator of the women’s liberation movement as well as their roles in the reproduction of gender discourse in modern China.The present paper examines the construction process of the women journalists’ identity from both gender and employment perspectives. With Joan Scott’s analysis framework for gender,which regards gender as the social and cultural construction of the difference between male and female and analyzes gender from four perspectives of cultural symbol, normative conception, organization and institution, this paper looks at the impact of the political, economic and educational systems, popular ideology and the evolution of journalism on the nature and scope of the practice of women journalists, and at the relationship between the self-awareness and the practice of women journalists in various historical scenarios. Since it is a progressing and changing process in specific historical scenarios, this paper focuses on four typical cases:a women social group in Tianjin, the Nvxingshe, during the late of the Chinese Enlightment Era; a woman journalist with Ta Kung Pao, Jiang Yixiao, in1920s to1930s; women editors in Nanjing and Shanghai in the mid-1930s; as well as women journalists in Shanghai in the mid-1940s.From the case studies,theis paper summarizes the self-identification of women journalists as two categories:gender oriented and professional oriented women journalists.The gender oriented women journalists strived for the women’s liberation.concerned women issues,regarded themselves liberation and other women’s liberation as the ultimate goal of their lives.With this self-identification,they used their job to achieve their idea,they were actionists and their practices were tended to empower women.While the professional oriented women journalists had no clear position on women rights and position on women rights and never involved in the disscussion of women’s issues and actions.They identified themselves with the recognized rules and criteria of the journalism(e.g.big news) and regarded it as the fulfillment of themselves.To be fairly judged by the professional capability rather than the gender,they constructed the gender neutral professional-identification with various discourses strategies.All in all,as the constructor of women rights discourses,the actor of women’s movement,the speaker of women’s lives and the practitioner of women’s liberation,the women journalists in the Republic of China played a very important role in the construction of new women identity,and the empowerment of women to be involved in the transition of the social and cultural order.At the same time the practice of the women journalists enriched the perspectives and contents of newspaper.Their personal experiences also enable us to better understand the development of journalism and the self-identification of women journalists at that time.