Survey: 80% consider family as top criterion for female success

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-03-05 20:26

BEIJING - Most Chinese still consider family as the most important part of a woman's life despite the increasing emergence of successful career women.

About 80.4 percent of those polled considered family harmony as the top criterion for a woman's success, according to the survey report issued Thursday.

The survey, sponsored by the China Youth Daily and conducted by Beijing-based market research company ePanel last week, sampled 2,845 people nationwide, of whom 73.7 percent were born in the 1980s and 1990s.

The second most important factor in a woman's success was true love, according to 56.1 percent of respondents, and third was raising a child well, according to 49.8 percent.

A successful career was considered the fifth most important factor with about 29 percent of respondents.

Other indicators included having many good friends (32.8 percent), high income (11.6 percent) and marriage to a rich husband (5.6 percent).

"Whether a woman is happy or successful depends on her own estimation," said Zhang Jing, dean of the Literature School and director of the Institute of Aesthetic Culture of the Communication University of China.

"Personally I admire women who have their own careers. Women will feel at a loss if their success is measured solely by their family and husbands."

According to the survey, 42.8 percent people believed women sacrifice more than men for their careers, while 26.3 percent thought women could land more opportunities than men if they worked hard enough.

Social and cultural progress had enabled women to better exert their professional abilities, but their roles as wife and mother were still constraining their personal development, said Xiao Ying, professor in aesthetics at Tsinghua University.

"There is an old saying that behind a successful man usually is a devoted woman. But behind a successful woman is hardship few people can imagine," he said.

However, more than 50 percent people believed women could maintain a balance between career and family.

About 23 percent said women should give more priority to family, the survey found.

"A woman having her career should not focus only on work, because the purpose of working is to live a better life," said Ma Ni, who runs a physical fitness company in Beijing. "If she works so hard that it detracts from her family life, it will not be worthwhile."

The survey also showed that 34.8 percent of people thought gender equality had been realized while 53.7 percent thought men had more power than women.

According to the survey, Chinese thought confidence, kindness and decency were the top three indicators of female beauty.