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Lower Barriers and Higher Social Status? — Chinese Women Working in E-commerce

Li, Yuxin LU (2022) EOSK12 20221
Department of Economic History
Abstract
With the recent development of Internet technology, the e-commerce industry is booming. However, under this rapid development, various inequality issues are hidden. Inspired by Goldin's (2002) study on declining gender significance, this paper focuses on the gender inequalities faced by female employees in the e-commerce industry in China. This paper focuses on one of the representatives of the e-commerce industry, Internet companies, to investigate the barriers and social status of female employees working in Chinese Internet companies. Using a qualitative research approach, this paper interviewed eight employees of Chinese Internet companies through semi-structured interviews. Acker's (2006) inequality regimes are then used to extract... (More)
With the recent development of Internet technology, the e-commerce industry is booming. However, under this rapid development, various inequality issues are hidden. Inspired by Goldin's (2002) study on declining gender significance, this paper focuses on the gender inequalities faced by female employees in the e-commerce industry in China. This paper focuses on one of the representatives of the e-commerce industry, Internet companies, to investigate the barriers and social status of female employees working in Chinese Internet companies. Using a qualitative research approach, this paper interviewed eight employees of Chinese Internet companies through semi-structured interviews. Acker's (2006) inequality regimes are then used to extract and analyze information from the responses given by the interviewees and finally draw conclusions.
The study found that female employees of Chinese Internet companies do face lower barriers, such as lower physical requirements that make it easier for women to enter the industry and higher salaries that make women more likely to be financially independent. However, as one digs deeper, higher barriers emerge, such as segregation by gender between positions or within positions, and different hierarchies. In terms of social status, women in Chinese Internet companies have not managed to gain a higher status, as the gender hierarchy created by the particular Chinese Confucian culture keeps women in a disadvantaged position. The development of e-commerce has not substantially changed the status of women in the cultural system. (Less)
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author
Li, Yuxin LU
supervisor
organization
course
EOSK12 20221
year
type
M2 - Bachelor Degree
subject
keywords
gender inequality, e-commerce, Internet companies, inequality regimes, barriers, social status, Confucian culture, China
language
English
id
9091219
date added to LUP
2022-08-19 10:46:22
date last changed
2022-08-19 10:46:22
@misc{9091219,
  abstract     = {{With the recent development of Internet technology, the e-commerce industry is booming. However, under this rapid development, various inequality issues are hidden. Inspired by Goldin's (2002) study on declining gender significance, this paper focuses on the gender inequalities faced by female employees in the e-commerce industry in China. This paper focuses on one of the representatives of the e-commerce industry, Internet companies, to investigate the barriers and social status of female employees working in Chinese Internet companies. Using a qualitative research approach, this paper interviewed eight employees of Chinese Internet companies through semi-structured interviews. Acker's (2006) inequality regimes are then used to extract and analyze information from the responses given by the interviewees and finally draw conclusions.
The study found that female employees of Chinese Internet companies do face lower barriers, such as lower physical requirements that make it easier for women to enter the industry and higher salaries that make women more likely to be financially independent. However, as one digs deeper, higher barriers emerge, such as segregation by gender between positions or within positions, and different hierarchies. In terms of social status, women in Chinese Internet companies have not managed to gain a higher status, as the gender hierarchy created by the particular Chinese Confucian culture keeps women in a disadvantaged position. The development of e-commerce has not substantially changed the status of women in the cultural system.}},
  author       = {{Li, Yuxin}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Lower Barriers and Higher Social Status? — Chinese Women Working in E-commerce}},
  year         = {{2022}},
}