Xiaobei Chen, Women Can Hold Up Half the Sky

Xiaobei Chen spoke at the Celebrating International Women’s Day 2016 event organized by the Ottawa Chinese Community Service Centre on March 8, 2016. She reflected on the socialist legacy in improving women’s status in China and regression since the post-1978 market economy reform. She drew parallels between gender disparity in China and Canada, arguing that neoliberal economic doctrines that insist on downsizing the public sector and leaving the market to its own devices have produced persisting and sometimes increasing inequality between women and men around the globe.