“Re-stratifying” women: female images in China’s state media from the perspective of social stratification (2011–2020)

Abstract

In the 2010s, feminism thrived in China amid a transformation in social stratification and a rise in women’s social status. The focus of this study is on the representation of the images of women of various social strata in national news reports. Taking Xinwen Lianbo, a national news program produced by China Central Television, as an example, we analyzed visual representations of 360 female figures from 2011 to 2020. The findings revealed that, rather than reflecting China’s Tǔ-shaped stratification structure, the program depicted an “olive-shaped” pseudo-society in which women of what we term the “middle” stratum constituted the largest portion and served as multifaceted role models, women of the “prominent” stratum served as bellwethers of socioeconomic development, and women of the “ordinary” stratum did not participate in social development. The program’s imagery also created a double standard for domestic duties: Women of the prominent stratum were depicted as disembedded from the social role of housewife and breaking through the career “glass ceiling,” though not achieving equality with men in terms of their positions in society or politics, while women of the ordinary stratum as bearing the ideological reshuffle of conservative gender values. This study suggests a fresh perspective on the great disparities in the representation of women in different strata, which differs from the status of gender and stratum in real society.