I just read an old blog post on The China Beat Blog by Hongmei Li, entitled “From Iron Girls to Oriental Beauties.” Li does an excellent job of documenting the evolution of the perception of women in Chinese society from the post Mao era through the present day. Li writes, “During the three decades that followed the 1949 founding of the PRC, one goal promoted in official discourse was that of erasing gender differences and promoting gender sameness.  This was linked to achieving a broader agenda: the elimination of class and socioeconomic differences. The underlying assumption was that women and men had the same fundamental responsibility: serving collective units, above the nation.”

This prompted attempts to advance the perception of women and men as equals with widespread images like the ones below:

By contrast , Li argues that over the past 30 years there has been a significant change in how women are viewed. “The image of Chinese women has dramatically shifted and women’s bodies have been closely associated with pleasure and the rise of consumer culture. In the 1980s, feminized women were said to represent progress and the iron girls were ridiculed.” She uses Chinese movie stars Zhang Ziyi and Gongli to illustrate her point:

Tom Doctoroff, in his book “Billions: Selling To The New Chinese Consumer” writes that the conflicting pressures of Confucianism, Maoism and modern day society have left contemporary Chinese women confused – they are “pulled between coexisting mandates of soft subservience and aggressive productivity.”

What are female consumers looking for in China?

According to this Shaun Rein article women under the age of 35 were one of the main reasons for China’s 15% increase in retail sales during the first half of 2009. The following are his thoughts on what drives the contemporary Chinese female consumer:

“Chinese women are emerging as one of the most confident bodies of consumers in the world. And they have the money to keep on spending. To be successful selling to them, you have to cater to their emotions and concerns more than ever before, even when selling products that men traditionally buy. As Chinese women work harder, raise children at the same time, and pay for their parents, they want to spoil themselves and relax a little. They are willing to pay a premium for safe and healthy quality products that let them do so.”