Engendering the Nonprofit Sector: Women Working in Chinese NGOs

• In Event: 413 - Section on Organizations, Occupations and Work Refereed Roundtable Session. Table 01. Culture and Organizations
  In Refereed Roundtable 100min: Table 02. Gender

Abstract

Even though it was a recognizable fact that women haves increasingly become the key labor force for the nonprofit sector as staff members, less has been known about who and why they take on those jobs. Similarly, China’s nonprofit sector has also witnessed a similar trend in the gendering of labor force. According to a recent survey of foundation’s program managers, more than half of the people surveyed were women. While there is no systematic study about the role of gender in the nonprofit sector, this paper provides a preliminary analysis of people working in Chinese NGOs. Based on ethnographic fieldwork and semi-structured interviews with 75 people working in Chinese NGOs in Beijing from 2010-2013, I attempt to bring their life experiences in dialogue with theories of gendered organizations, gender structure of hierarchy, and sociology of work and occupations. This paper provides categorizations of people who have found their job in the Chinese NGOs, and it also provide an analysis of how their aspirations or choices are enabled or constrained by their gendered perception of the nonprofit work.

Author

• Ling Han, Stanford University