Nowadays, more and more Chinese women are seeking free lives and financial independence. With more freedom and money, the "she economy" has turned out to be a vital force boosting consumption in our society.
The "she economy" was a term first coined by China's Ministry of Education in 2007 for the women-targeted market. Statistics show that female consumers are a major driving force in many sectors of the economy, especially online ones, like cosmetics, health care, e-commerce, financial services and education.
Compared with women in other Asian countries such as Japan and South Korea, Chinese women have relatively higher positions in society. According to a recent survey, about 64 percent of China's female population is employed, much higher than the average in Asia as a whole, and their contribution accounts for more than 41 percent of the country's GDP.
Unlike men, it may be common for Chinese women to go shopping with friends, in order to reward themselves when they are happy or get a salary hike, or to divert pressure and depression. Especially regarding online consumption, females show a much stronger purchasing power as in the country's "Double 11" buying spree, also dubbed as the "hand-chopping" festival.
As we all know, China has the great tradition of women holding up half the sky. But now Chinese women seem to hold more than half the sky. A recent report published by the Swiss bank UBS Group AG showed that only 14 percent of Chinese women respondents in the survey allowed their spouses to take the lead in financial decisions. Female consumers in China not only are influential groups that cannot be ignored in the consumption of daily necessities, but also are the persons who make decisions for important household expenditures. Chinese women are now key influencers even for traditionally male-oriented products such as liquor, automobiles and sports. Experts said that the main reason Chinese women take charge of household wealth management is that they are more sensitive and rational in investment. When selecting financial portfolios, women are more cautious, good at risk control and show less interest in products with a high leverage.
Some Chinese women can even make important financial decisions for their children. For example, "mother-in-law" is a term in China interwoven with both love and hatred, since it is a common practice for a Chinese mother-in-law to ask her future son-in-law to buy an apartment for the new family before marriage. It may be easier for a young man to buy a house in townships or smaller cities; however, such a task is virtually a mission impossible for common young men living in first-tier cities such as Shenzhen.
The general public has gradually come to realize that businesses that understand and cater to the demands of female consumers are more competitive in the market. For instance, TV shows and dramas such as "Nothing but Thirty" and "Sisters Who Brave Winds and Waves," which center on women and their issues, have been gaining wide popularity in China now as the country's movie industry is struggling to shrug off the side effects of the pandemic. More interestingly, many Chinese men are becoming rich and famous by earning money from female consumers. In June this year, Shanghai's Chongming District published a directive to confirm Li Jiaqi, an online celebrity who is widely known as the best-seller of lipsticks in China, as a special talent who can get faster approval when applying for the metropolitan city's permanent residence permit.
In spite of greater purchasing power, much still needs to be done to tap and nurture the intellectual capabilities of women in China. Frankly speaking, the value of female professionals, especially those involved in scientific and political arenas, is often underestimated. Official data shows that less than 6 percent of the academicians in the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Engineering are women.
I personally believe that there is hardly any difference between men and women in intelligence and physical condition. If appropriate environments and equal access are offered, women can be as excellent as men in these sectors.
(The author is the editor-in-chief of Shenzhen Daily with a Ph.D. from the Journalism and Communication School of Wuhan University.)