A review on women leadership in China

Abstract

The role of women leadership in China is increasing significantly, and relevant literature is also growing. This paper reviews China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), the biggest academic database in China, on the women leadership research literature. We divided and analysed the data in three different levels, namely, Macro level, Meso level and Micro level. We found that today in China the research on women leadership is more concentrated on education area, business company and government sector. Moreover, most of the literature on women leadership discussed theories and methods for analysing psychology, sociology, management and interdisciplinary research. The subjects are concerning to country system, cultural background, and social identity in Macro level; organisational operations and stereotypes in Meso level; and gender roles recognition, role conflict, career development leadership and management performance in Micro level. In addition, as research in this area has evolved, scholars are encouraging more complex examination on operating and development of women leadership in China.