Research on gender structure of accounting profession in China

One of the most striking phenomena in recent years has been the increasing proportion of women in the labour force, enabling women in many fields to use their potential and to achieve economic independence. So the gender structure analysis becomes more and more important to society and economic development. Accounting research lacks the study of gender issues. This paper intends to summarize the gender structure of accounting profession in China, and aims to explore the critical factors such as economic system of government, traditional characteristics of women, glass ceiling and psychological factors which take a great influence on the gender structure of accounting profession. A conclusion can be made that the proportion of women participation in accounting profession is higher than men, but the majority of senior accounting professionals in China are still men.

Structural Gender Inequality and Mental Health among Chinese Men and Women

Little is known about the association between structural gender inequality and health in patriarchal China.This study employed a sample from the Chinese Women’s Social Status,consisting of 26,139 participants aged 18 and 70 years(13,494 women and 12,645 men).Structural gender inequality was assessed at the macro-,meso-,and micro-levels.Mental health was measured by the summed scores of eight questions on depressive symptoms.Multilevel linear regression was applied for analysis.Results showed that total sex ratio at birth was associated with poorer mental health among women and men but sex ratio at birth of the second-born child predicted better mental health.Gender inequality at meso-level resulted in poorer mental health and gender inequality at micro-level was associated with poorer mental health both for men and women.Eliminating structural gender inequality promotes populations’mental health in China.

The fear of having two sons:a noteworthy preference for the gender of children

This paper argues that“the fear of having two sons”is a gender structure phenom-enon that causes anxiety for some Chinese families.To prove the existence of such a fear in some families,this paper considers three aspects:the ideal gender structure of children,women’s childbearing plan for second children and their actual child-bearing behavior.Data for nine provinces is taken from the China Fertility Survey of 2017.This paper finds that:(1)except for having no children,2 sons and 0 daughters is the most undesired gender structure;(2)among those who expect 1 son and 1 daughter,women whose first child is a son are less likely to plan to have a second child than those whose first child is a daughter;(3)among those who expect 1 son and 1 daughter,women with a son as the first child are less likely to have a second child than those with a daughter.These findings prove that,at present,the phenom-enon of the fear of having two sons does exist in some Chinese families.Finally,this paper summarizes how the attitudes of Chinese families towards having sons have changed since the 1950s from“a hope for having many sons”to“a desire for at least one son”and finally to“the fear of having two sons.”The paper also discusses the significance of the fear of having two sons phenomenon in terms of improving the proximate determinants of low fertility model.