‘Leftover women’: A sociolinguistic study of gender bias in Chinese

• Published in: Poznan Studies in Contemporary Linguistics Vol. 58; no. 3; pp. 477 - 507
• Main Authors: He, Lin, Chen, Rong, Dong, Ming
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin De Gruyter 27.09.2022; Walter de Gruyter GmbH
• Subjects: Bias; Chinese languages; Gender; gender bias; language and gender; language and society; marriage; Polls & surveys; Respondents; Sexism; Social media; Sociolinguistics; Women
• ISSN: 0137-2459; 1732-0747; 1897-7499
• DOI: 10.1515/psicl-2022-0022

This study is an investigation of a newly-created Chinese lexeme ‘leftover women’, referring to single women beyond the socially expected marrying age. Data from an online survey of 416 respondents reveals the various aspects of gender bias against women as seen in the coined term. They also provide evidence that gender bias is waning, as younger and female respondents are more likely to view as more offensive, to see the reasons for being ‘leftover’ as women’s desire for independence and freedom, and to identify society as the source of pressure for women to marry. Our study contributes to the field of sociolinguistics via its investigation of with other aspects of the Chinese language, by adopting a social media survey data gathering method – which offered us a sizable sample – and by being possibly the first empirical sociolinguistic study of gender bias via a detailed investigation of the various aspects of a particular lexeme in the Chinese language.