WestminsterResearch http://www.westminster.ac.uk/westminsterresearch Exploring the relationship between women’s empowerment and the internet in China: potentials and constraints Han, X. This is an electronic version of a PhD thesis awarded by the University of Westminster. © Miss Xiao Han, 2016. The WestminsterResearch online digital archive at the University of Westminster aims to make the research output of the University available to a wider audience. Copyright and Moral Rights remain with the authors and/or copyright owners. Whilst further distribution of specific materials from within this archive is forbidden, you may freely distribute the URL of WestminsterResearch: ((http://westminsterresearch.wmin.ac.uk/). In case of abuse or copyright appearing without permission e-mail [email protected] EXPLORING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT AND THE INTERNET IN CHINA: POTENTIALS AND CONSTRAINTS X. HAN PhD 2016 EXPLORING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT AND THE INTERNET IN CHINA: POTENTIALS AND CONSTRAINTS A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the University of Westminster for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy XIAO HAN July 2016 Abstract This thesis reports on an exploratory study of the relationship between the Internet and women’s empowerment in China. The theoretical framework of the study combines feminist theorisations of power – the core concept of empowerment – with insights from sociological perspectives on power and gender, as well as collective action theory. This allows for the conceptualisation of women’s empowerment as a dynamic process that is shaped by a set of communicative practices. Focusing on female Chinese bloggers and women’s groups of different organisational types, this study aims to explore the respective ways in which these two types of women actors use the Internet with a view to examining whether, and the extent to which it enables them to generate a sense of empowerment. The empirical data mainly derives from interviews with female bloggers and with staff members from different women’s groups, as well as from a features analysis and social network analysis of the sampled blogs and official websites of studied groups. Overall, the findings suggest that the opportunities offered by the Internet for women’s empowerment through awareness-raising, social interactions, and the organising of collective action, are limited. For female bloggers, their activities do not translate the new communicative practices afforded by the Internet into concrete action to bring about changes in their everyday life. On the contrary, blogs become an alternative platform to discipline their behaviours and to reinforce patriarchal gendered norms. Moreover, the research finds that the promise of empowerment is further undermined by the pervasive commercialisation of the Internet and state control. For women’s groups, contextual factors prevent them from fully realising the potential of the Internet for increasing their organisational visibility, promoting public awareness about gender issues, building a sense of the collective, campaigning, or networking. The major barriers in these processes are state control, a lack of resources, online censorship, and at times, competition from commercial sites. In this respect, the Internet does not play a significant role in forming a collective to challenge existing unjust power relations. i Table of Contents Abstract ...................................................................................................................... i List of Tables ............................................................................................................. v List of Figures ........................................................................................................... vi Acknowledgements ................................................................................................. vii Chapter 1 Introduction ...................................................................................... 1 Chapter 2 Developing a Conceptual Framework for Women’s Empowerment 8 2.1 Theoretical Basis of Women’s Empowerment: Feminist Perspectives on Power 9 2.1.1 Power as ‘Power over’: Domination and Empowerment .................................... 10 2.1.2 Power as ‘Power to’: Agency and Challenge to ‘Power over’ .............................. 15 2.1.3 Power as ‘Power with’: Resistance to ‘Power over’, Women’s Movements, and Collective Empowerment ....................................................................................................... 17 2.2 Women’s Empowerment as a Dynamic Process: A Proposal for a Communication Approach ............................................................................................. 20 2.3 Rethinking Women’s Empowerment as a Communication Phenomenon ...... 23 2.3.1 Developing Women’s Consciousness through Voice .......................................... 23 2.3.2 Constructing a Public Identity ................................................................................ 27 2.3.3 Organising Collective Action .................................................................................. 28 2.4 Concluding Remarks .......................................................................................... 32 Chapter 3 Creating Theoretical Links between the Internet and Women’s Empowerment ......................................................................................................... 34 3.1 What is the Internet? ......................................................................................... 34 3.1.1 Linking the Internet to Communication ............................................................... 35 3.1.2 The Internet, Communication, and Genre ............................................................ 38 3.2 Feminist Critique of Power: Rethinking the Theoretical Basis of Women’s Empowerment in the New Communication Environment ........................................... 39 3.2.1 ‘Power over’: A Reflection of the Real-World Power Hierarchy ........................ 40 3.2.2 Opportunities for ‘Power to’ .................................................................................... 42 3.2.3 Networking and ‘Power with’ .................................................................................. 46 3.3 Relating Women’s Empowerment to the Internet: A Communication Paradigm ......................................................................................................................... 48 3.3.1 Promoting Women’s Consciousness through Self-Expression and Storytelling 48 3.3.2 Performance of the Self: A New Source of Power to Control Identities ............ 50 3.3.3 Capability of Organising Personal Social Networks: Emergence of Social Empowerment .......................................................................................................................... 53 3.3.4 New Dynamics of ‘Power with’ for Women’s Organising and Collective Action 55 3.4 Concluding Remarks: Understanding Women’s Empowerment in the Internet Age 58 Chapter 4 Contextual Background: Women, Feminism, and the Internet in China 61 4.1 What is a Chinese Woman? ............................................................................... 61 4.1.1 Chinese Women in Early Time (Before 1949): A Brief Historical Account ..... 62 ii 4.1.2 Chinese Women in the Mao Era: Between 1949 and 1976 ................................. 66 4.1.3 Chinese Women in the Reform Era: Between the Late 1970s and the 1990s ... 69 4.1.4 The Image of Chinese Women in the Twenty-First Century ............................. 71 4.2 Translating the Western Concept of Feminism into Local Action .................. 73 4.2.1 Building a National Legislative Framework .......................................................... 74 4.2.2 The Processes of Women’s Organising: The All-China’s Women Federation and Women’s Civic Associations .......................................................................................... 77 4.3 The Internet in China ........................................................................................ 80 4.3.1 Chinese Women’s Use of the Internet ................................................................... 81 4.3.2 A Brief Introduction to the Chinese Internet Environment ............................... 84 4.3.3 Governance, Censorship, and Commercialisation ............................................... 86 4.3.4 Forming a Carnivalesque Chinese Internet: Users’ Reactions to Political Control 88 4.4 Concluding Remarks .......................................................................................... 91 Chapter 5 A Multi-Method Study of Women’s Empowerment and the Internet: Design, Implementation and Evaluation ................................................ 92 5.1 Methodological Framework: A Mixed Methods Study ..................................... 92 5.2 Thinking about the Potential Use of Web Sphere Analysis and Network Ethnography .................................................................................................................... 96 5.2.1 Web Sphere Analysis ................................................................................................ 96 5.2.2 Network Ethnography .............................................................................................. 97 5.3 Main Phase of Study I: Application of Features Analysis and Social Network Analysis ..........................................................................................................................