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The Research Development of Social Gender Perspective
GAO Lijuan
Shandong Women’s University, Jinan, China, 250012
[email protected]
Abstract: Gender perspective as a way of thinking and research method, which from a whole new
perspective of existing scientific knowledge, resulting in a cross-disciplinary, divergent effects. Gender
perspective in academia and practice of development has been widely accepted and adopted, covering
the vast majority of its research and development of women’s studies related areas, such as education,
public participation, legislation, media and so on. With a full range of interpretation of a gender
perspective, are building the localization of Advanced Gender Culture.
Keywords: Gender, Gender perspective, Gender culture
1 The Related Research Were Reviewed
As a kind of analysis method, the social gender perspective is not knowledge or major is not knowledge,
but rather thinking, understanding the problem. That is to say, when we refer to social gender
perspective as a method of category, this concept refers to a kind of knowledge structure, a way of
thinking and research, a kind of can help us to be ignored in the history of the discovery of in the field of
analytical tools. It is a challenge to traditional historiography gender blindness phenomenon existing in
the form of the concept of social cultural reflection. Gender perspective is produced within the female
subject and with the research on gender and development. It is for the sociological study, increase the
theory of a domain, perspective and branch, the knowledge content of incremental; At the same time, it
also produced to the current research of interdisciplinary, the influence of the spread, from a new
perspective for scientific knowledge and has produced many new products, make other disciplines in the
social gender perspective changes in the interaction and rich.
Gender perspective is one of the feminist perspective, it is not a female perspective, is not the traditional
perspective of equality between men and women. It is relatively neutral position taken by the object of
study is not only including the women and men. Just a gender Angle of view from the perspective of
women, women’s way of thinking or position as the foothold to analyze and solve problems, namely
“how to” according to women, the grievance is not a man, but to related to gender culture, system or
structure, etc. Objective based on equality and vision to analyze behavior and the relationship between
men and women, to explore the social development of different policy impact on gender differences. Is
the ultimate pursuit of men and women through the joint efforts to eliminate gender system, so as to
realize equality between men and women, the comprehensive and free development.
In the 1990s, social gender studies into China. Especially after the 1995 world conference on women
held in Beijing, gender in China not only became the main theory of women’s studies and gender
research tools, and gradually enter the social each domain, including a variety of academic research and
social practice. Chinese scholars Wang Yiping, Du Fangqin and Wang Xiangxian also did the concept
of gender. Wang Yiping (2001): gender refers to the social and cultural formation of the understanding
of the differences between men and women, and formed in the social culture belongs to the group
characteristics and female or male behavior. Du Fangqin, Wang Xiangxian thinks that gender is a kind
of system, is a kind of ideology and value systems; at the same time is also a kind of performance for the
rights of a variety of power operation and customs, even is a kind of powerful inertia force of the
collective unconscious.
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2 The Idea of This Article
First is the public to participate in the field. In this area, the concern of the social gender perspective is
the core issue of women in the social public to participate in the unequal situation, puts women
problems of gender power of relationships, to break the traditional model analysis, binary, opposites,
aimed at improving women’s unfavorable situation, promote equality between men and women to
participate in, healthy development. Research focuses on two aspects: one is focused on social gender
analysis of public policy making, focuses on increasing the proportion of women and to provide
decision makers male policymakers gender consciousness to improve the level of social gender
consciousness of public policy making. Second is to focus on gender problems in specific areas of
public policy. Mainly using the tools of social gender analysis on China’s education policy, the land
contracting policy, employment policy, etc. The proportion of Chinese women’s participation in public
management in the ranks of the international community, is the 12th 1994, reduced to 28th, 2002.
Investigate its reason, mainly: first, the female self-consciousness marginalized. Participation in public
decision making of women often do not have a strong gender consciousness, no strong consciousness to
improve women’s status. Second, the social evaluation of male high female low in women marginalized
in the power structure, with the same strength of women than men recognized found fewer opportunities,
to the power and the upper flow is particularly difficult. So, in the power structure, the development of
women is very limited, the consequences are that women can not make full guarantee, the legitimate
interests of the female obstacles in the development of the society, which, in turn, to strengthen the
traditional gender concept. Third, the gender is the result of socialization. The bondage of gender
identity and gender role of repression is not a phenomenon or a single person’s behavior, it is a common
social phenomenon and social behavior.
The second is the legislative field. After 60 years of development, our country for women’s protective
legislation made great achievements. Once these laws and regulations, adopts a gender perspective as
you can see, there are lack of gender. Legislation is the lack of explicit sex out of too much emphasis on
gender differences, the same situation is different from the male to female regulation, the difference
between a “good heart” to put women in disadvantaged and marginalized. Provisional regulations on the
national ministry of personnel “civil servants”: civil servants retirement age for men and women aged
60 and 55 respectively, the average life expectancy is generally higher than that of male female work
artificially shortened the time for 5 years, it will directly affect the female employment, promotion,
retirement pay and economic cost of units employ women. Such laws for taking care of women’s point
of view, but the exaggerated physiological characteristics of women, women entirely under the
protection of the weak position, and ignore the women based on gender equal rights. Excessive
protection instead become the extra burden of women in the labor market competition, also put women
at a disadvantage, but also be used as an excuse to unit of choose and employ persons refuse to employ
women. Legislation is lack of implicit gender for mechanically to lessen the different of physiology.
Legal value of justice and equality concept is, under the conditions of “asexual” interpretation of women
in law is in the “aphasia”, women become a party to have been lost in the law, or women and the law
produced by legal separation or even abandoned. China’s “labor law” stipulated in article 46: “the wage
distribution should follow the principle of distribution according to work and equal pay for equal work.”
The protect women’s lawful rights and interests law will undoubtedly make hiring women have no
economic behavior has become more expensive.
Again is the education field. In our primary and secondary school education in the perspective of social
gender, can be found in the aspect of school, teachers and textbooks are serious gender discrimination.
Our country has many scholars believe that the contemporary Chinese education is a kind of “no gender
difference” or “gender-neutral” education, the education originally aimed at by keeping gender neutral
stance, against gender discrimination in education, but due to ignore the gender differences between
men and women, instead makes against gender discrimination into manufacturing gender discrimination,
which not only failed to eliminate obscures the gender bias and gender discrimination in the field of
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education. As a matter of fact, our country is of long standing and well established gender education,
such as, since ancient times, men’s and women’s schools, and now there are many types of each school
practice “in teaching”, especially those of recessive underlie the teaching material, teaching and school
culture of gender stereotypes. In fact, education should be “gender”, the students develop into sexual
“whole person”. That is to say, in the education practice, we should not only attach importance to gender
and gender differences, and to try to avoid gender segregation or gender exclusion, to critically
understanding and the transformation of the traditional gender see Chen, avoid gender stereotypes, and
this is what we now advocate gender sensitive education.
Gender perspective focus on higher areas and mass media. This is because with the progress of science
and technology, the mass media is more and more about or dominate people’s life, it also caused many
social gender researchers’ attention. Women that they adopt a gender perspective to examine the media,
found that the performance of media images of women and women reflect a larger systemic deviation.
Media today, published in 2004, scholars Wang Liyan published an article said: “the women in the
media now occupy a considerable information space, however, media seems to get rid of women did not
be materialized, castes, entertainment, performance in the public domain for the male hegemony society
for women’s collective peeping feeling.” Another focus on higher areas is that female employment,
mainly concentrated in from a gender perspective brought to the analysis of factors causing the current
female employment difficult. Some studies suggest that regard women as a pure mother and wife, in
turn a blind eye to their economy, which puts women outside the development process, the women in
the position of the “absence” in the development, this itself is a kind of “cognitive defects”. And think,
due to the role of women in the family and social duality, users of the unit to hire girls there is a
potential resistance. And fertility problems is women’s “natural attached cost” the main reason for the
high. Birth is the precondition of society of human reproduction and the continuation of human
civilization, is a matter of a country and national survival and prosperity. Women shoulder the sacred
mission, deserve respect, understanding and support of the whole society. Real situation, however, is the
female’s reproductive costs entirely by her employer unit burden, the “burden” of women to become
unit of choose and employ persons, women will inevitably suffer discrimination in employment. Female
fertility cost socialization, fertility cost should be brought into the social security system, separated from
the unit of choose and employ persons, unit of natural attached by employing women shall no longer be
reproductive costs. Establish a unified, independent birth insurance system, female reproductive costs
borne by the society, government.
3 The Improving of Social Gender Perspective
First of all, the analysis of the social gender perspective, we clearly realize that somewhere between the
root cause of various misunderstandings and conflicts between the sexes, their misunderstanding is to
alter their gender, and then improve the awareness of “people”. Break through the traditional gender
essentialism dichotomy, men against women. Men, in the “woman” and “female”, not “people”, see
only the sexual, ignored the personality of women; Some feminists in the “woman” in the “people”, not
“female”, is to emphasize the female’s independent personality, but neglected the female gender and the
gender value. And “person” is the unity of natural attribute and social attribute, the woman is not only
“man”, and “female”, man is also a “male” and “people” the existence of a unified, are sexual “complete
person”.
Second, the idea of socialization of housework gradually accepted by society. Engels had made the
women’s liberation is one of the prerequisites of socialization of housework, namely “the private
housework melt in a public career”. American marxist feminists about Karen sachs argues that break the
family and society, public and private sectors in the field of space, make domestic individual labor and
become part of public labor, so that women really become “social” adult. In fact, women non-wage
housework labor contribute greatly to the development of the society is beyond people’s imagination
and guess, many experts and scholars, and even ordinary citizens are recognized, necessity and
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inevitability of the socialization of housework, and make the corresponding efforts for this. In recent
years, the rapid development of domestic companies is a very strong case in point. Governments at all
levels should also continue to take active measures to promote the industrialization of housework,
develop various forms of social family services, that women really liberated from housework, have
plenty of time and effort to strengthen learning and training, create more value for the society, to
improve their competitiveness and employability.
Third, promoting the localization of the advanced gender culture research. Advanced gender culture, is a
kind of personality and dignity of men and women are treated equally, security men and women to
participate in politics, economy, education, social and cultural rights and equality of opportunity and
family life, advocate equality between men and women in the social and family life, harmonious,
positive interaction and common development of culture. After nearly 20 years of development, China’s
gender studies highlight its own characteristics: combined with China’s experience, to the related theory
research paradigm of gender development and knowledge construction logic for the Chinese reading;
Along with our country social change, social gender studies also experienced from a single perspective
to multi-dimensional and cross Angle of view, from local to global change and development; The
development of Chinese women also experienced from the imprisoned under patriarchal patriarchal, to
the awakening of female consciousness, the liberation of the spirit, to the independence of the new
period. This booming trend of China’s social gender studies will continue to further development with
the localization of the advanced gender culture is also gradually formed.
4 Conclusion
As described above, along with the social gender perspective brought to the analysis of application
research framework, we really made a breakthrough in many aspects of change and development, but
also exposed some very obvious problems. As “import”, theoretical content of the social gender
perspective itself are not unified, with China has lasted for thousands of years of gender culture
corresponds to the problem is self-evident. Students of gender studies, because itself in the “collective
unconscious” under the influence of patriarchal thought, though it is trying to get “value neutrality”, in
fact, he not only can’t maintain value neutrality, also inevitably branded with the male center socialist
consciousness. Traditional gender concept remains as a “historical inertia force”, for its indelible
cultural influence is stationed in people’s mind. Now the social gender perspective of research to change
the traditional framework of thinking, people look for interpretation and human existing knowledge
system and gender concept provides a more scientific tool. It is in the challenges, questioning, criticism
and deconstruction of traditional knowledge system in the process of establishing, it opposes the
dualistic thinking mode, denied the binary opposition of male center socialist way of knowledge
construction, emphasis on diversity, difference and complementarity, for our country the establishment
of the advanced gender culture provides a good theoretical basis.
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