Introducing Gender Awareness into Economic Research

Transferring Gender Perspective to Young Scholars

I think women's issues are not only the matters of women themselves, but also social issues. When women are fighting for their rights and interests, men's consciousness and participation should also be aroused.

From 1998-2012, I was in charge of scientific research, education and international cooperation at the Academic Division of CASS, and naturally introduced gender perspective into my research team and postgraduate students' cultivation. During that time, I led young people in two labs to participate in a science research program launched by the Women's Research Center of CASS.

In our team, men accounted for most of the members, forming an organization with distinct echelons ranging from postgraduate students to researchers. The program director called it a "luxurious" team. We took note of the female economic scholar training sessions launched by the Peking University China Economic Research Center, and each time it took place we dispatched male scientific researchers and postgraduate students to attend. In a class dominated by females, they were the most distinctive "leaves" among the "flowers."

In the process of learning and working, one of the male postgraduate students wrote an article with the theme of analyzing gender in the labor market, for which he claimed his doctorate. Now he has become a deputy director of a lab and a tutor of postgraduate students. He has naturally transferred the gender analyzing concept and methods in economics to the scholars of the new generation.

From 2005-12, the research team I headed also discovered the route of linking economic freedom (efficiency) and social balance (justice) and discussed how to achieve a social reconciliation between the sharing and the increase of the economy, especially in terms of the history of economic thought, political economics and development economics. After eight years of studying, a book named Inclusive Development and Policy Choices towards Social Justice was finished in which gender analysis was included in several of its chapters. The book received good reviews after being published. In June 2015, the book won the 16th Sun Yefang Economic Science Award, given by the Sun Yefang Economic Science Foundation.

China has made great progress in promoting gender equality in the past 20 years after the Fourth World Conference on Women, but it still has gaps compared to nations with the similar economic development levels. There is still a long way to go to eliminate the barrier of women's development. I will continue to introduce gender consciousness into economic research and pass the gender perspective on to the new research teams and the younger scholars. As I am often invited to attend the consultation activities of national and international poverty relief policies, I will introduce my research results with gender analysis to the process of policy-making consciously, to strive continuously for the promotion of gender equality and women's development.

(Source: China Women's News/Translated and edited by Women of China)