Looking Beyond the Glass Ceiling: Gender Economics in China from a Social Perspective

This book review analyzes The Economics of Gender in China: Women, Work, and the Glass Ceiling by Sisi Sung and assesses the substantive contributions the book offers to the study of gender economics. Given China's enormous economic growth and gender equality in education over the past four decades, Sung questions why there are still few women in executive positions. In order to adapt Akerlof and Kranton's identity economics model to the Chinese setting, the study first critically assesses the explanatory power of discrimination models, the theory of psychological attributes, and human capital theory by adding the idea of ‘cultural stereotype in the broadest sense’ Between 2019 and 2021, forty-five managers from the public and commercial sectors participated in in-depth interviews that served as the study's foundation. The results suggest that the glass ceiling is fueled by social identities, cultural norms, and the gender-based dynamics of guanxi, or in other words, relationship networks, in addition to institutional barriers. The chances and hurdles that women encounter during promotion processes are greatly influenced by the disparities in organizational structures between the public and private sectors. The study critically examines the book's drawbacks, including the lack of sample variety, the absence of a comparative perspective, and the feasibility of policy suggestions, even as it emphasizes the work's robust theoretical framework and unique contributions based on field data. As a result, Sung's book has been considered as a significant reference which points out the necessity of addressing cultural transformation in addition to legal and economic reforms for gender equality regulations.