Page 66 - Chinese Woman Living and Working

FEMININITY AND AUTHORITY 53
participants if they had encountered any problems with male colleagues as a discreet
opening to discussion of this issue, but they were either reluctant to discuss it or it was
not an issue they had dealt with. Generally, I found that the women did not want to
complain about their work at all (unless it was to say that it made juggling time at home
difficult) and so this could be another factor contributing to the lack of discussion
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about harassment. Not to be discounted, and perhaps of the greatest significance, is that
sexual misconduct is always and everywhere a sensational topic, especially in the media.
Women’s journals regularly include such articles, but this may be more for entertainment
and titillation rather than a reflection of a common reality for many women.

Internet use
Internet sites are increasingly recognising Chinese women as a specific and important
market, and the online community is an additional space within which Chinese feminine
identity is being (re)created. In response to this situation a number of women’s
professional associations and services for professional women have been established, such
as various national and provincial female entrepreneurs associations and Internet sites
geared primarily to Chinese women.
Available figures indicate that Chinese women’s use of the Internet falls well below
that of their male counterparts. A survey of 300,000 Chinese people found that the
majority of Internet users were single men with tertiary qualifications (BBC News Online
2000). According to Michael Yue (2000:1), women account for just over one-quarter
(4.27 million) of Chinese Internet users. A survey conducted by the Ministry of
Information and the Lantian Market Research Co. concludes that ‘men are twice
as likely to use the Internet as are women’ (ChinaOnline 2000:1). According to
Rosemary Brisco, women in Asia make up only 22 per cent of Internet users (see her
website http://WomenAsia.com—discussed later). This percentage corresponds with
the figure of approximately 25 per cent for women in China mentioned earlier. However,
use of the Internet by survey participants was not as low as might be expected from these
figures. Twelve women were so-called regular users (accessing the Internet more than
once a month) and eight said they used it every day. Roughly one-third of the sample
claimed they never use the Internet. These figures are higher than official reports and
statistics, no doubt because the women interviewed were generally well educated, have
good incomes and enjoy a high level of personal and professional autonomy. For those
who did not use the Internet, the reasons given were lack of free time rather than lack of
access. These women accessed the Internet mostly from home rather than work, which
gives us some insight into their level of personal computer ownership.
Daily users were split fairly evenly between using the Internet at home and at work,
and none of the women said they went to Internet cafés. These venues appear to serve mostly
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a student population, predominantly young men. The majority of women who used the
Internet daily were over 30 years of age, and the main reasons they gave for using the
Internet, whether at home or at work, were for communicating with others and work
purposes.