Leftover Women: The Resurgence of Gender Inequality in China, 10th Anniversary Edition

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Description

Leta Hong Fincher's landmark book Leftover Women shone a light on the resurgence of gender inequality in 21st-century China. Ten years on, women in China continue to experience a dramatic rolling back of rights and gains in the increasingly patriarchal political climate of the Xi Jinping era. Leftover Women explores the structural discrimination against women and the broader problems with Chinas economy, politics, and development that lie behind them. This updated edition includes a new preface exploring developments in China in the 10 years since the book's original publication, including the new "three child policy", the growth in online feminist and LGBTQ activism and the state's increasingly repressive moves against dissent.

Reviews

Makes a powerful and provocative argument that Chinas female shortage, far from empowering women, has actually resulted in a situation where urban womens rights are increasingly imperilledLeftover Women [will] leave readers coldly angry. * LA Review of Books *
A chilling account of the pressures on Chinese strivers One hopes that Leftover Women will soon be translated into Chinese, as it is likely to resonate deeply with urban educated women. It seems the party has forgotten the Mao-era dictum: Women Hold Up Half the Sky. * The New York Times *
Making the most of her experience as a journalist and her training in sociology, Leta Hong Fincher draws on previous breakthrough works in Chinese gender studies and her own interviews, while proving equally at home summarizing statistics and telling poignant tales of individual experience. The result is an engagingly written, thought-provoking work on a crucially important but often overlooked subject. Essential reading. * Jeffrey Wasserstrom, author of China in the 21st Century: What Everyone Needs to Know *
Cast aside what you think you know about the empowered women of China today. Modern Chinese women are under pressure in a society that often locks them out of social equality, property rights, and legal protection from domestic abuse. This is the reality that China scholar Leta Hong Fincher puts forward in her study of resurgent gender inequality in China. Her book is a well-researched and riveting read, including a number of gripping personal accounts straight from Chinas so-called leftover women. For any curious observer of China or womens issues, this is one to read. * Kristie Lu Stout, anchor/correspondent, CNN International *
In lively and accessible prose, Hong Fincher demonstrates conclusively that urban professional women have been disproportionately disadvantaged during Chinas breakneck economic development and largest wealth accumulation in human history. Hong Fincher exhaustively cites media, government statistics, her own interviews, and her Weibo survey results to substantiate the fact that gender inequality in China has reappeared with a vengeance and shows no signs of abating any time soon. * Rebecca E. Karl, New York University *
Leta Hong Fincher's subject researched through statistical analysis, sociological surveys and extensive first-hand interviewing is the toxic vitality of sexism in China today[Leftover Women] is scattered with inspiring life-stories of courageous women who have faced down appalling discrimination. * The Guardian *

Author Bio

Leta Hong Fincher has written for the New York Times, Washington Post, The Guardian, Dissent Magazine, Ms. Magazine, BBC, CNN and others. She won the Society of Professional Journalists Sigma Delta Chi award for her China reporting and is currently a Research Associate at the Weatherhead East Asian Institute at Columbia University, USA and Adjunct Assistant Professor at Columbia Universitys Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures. She is the author of Leftover Women (2014) and Betraying Big Brother (2018).