According to the Global Times, data from recruitment websites in China shows that the total and per capita income of Chinese women are growing faster than for men. Over the past five years, the annual growth rate of the income for women in China ranged from 4-7% (1.7-6% for men), and the income gap between men and women in China has narrowed from about 30% to around 15-25%.

“The Chinese She Economy is a powerhouse. Female consumers in China are proud of who they are and clear about what they want,” says Celine Tang, Sector Lead for Retail and e-Commerce at CBBC.

These female consumers are proactive and well-informed. They are strong advocates for products and brands that they like and share their opinions and experiences on social platforms like Xiaohongshu.

Many Chinese women are increasingly prioritising “self-improvement” consumption, both physical and psychological. They are willing to spend on products and services that benefit their lives, whether that be workout gear, a unique travel experience or a relaxing home fragrance. Other areas that are seeing increasing interest from Chinese women include cars and gaming.

By catering to the preferences of these influential buyers, UK brands can unlock significant growth opportunities in one of the world’s largest consumer markets. Brands that present progressive, culturally sensitive campaigns (focusing on gender equality, for example) have been a hit with Chinese female consumers.

For example, Chinese mother and baby brand Babycare recently ran a campaign called “Today don’t call me mum”, which focused on the need for self-care and the desire to have an independent identity among young mothers. “This tapped into the emotional desire of mothers to break away from the expectation that their lives now revolve around their children, focusing [instead] on self-care and self-confidence,” Jack Porteous, Commercial Director at TONG Global, told FOCUS.

Nevertheless, companies should be careful not to treat Chinese female consumers as a homogenous group, instead carefully researching the preferences of their target consumers and creating emotionally-resonant campaigns.

Meet the female speakers of China Consumer 2024

Don’t miss the opportunity to harness the power of China’s female consumers. Join CBBC’s flagship China Consumer 2024 conference in London on 14 October to hear from a dynamic line-up of female speakers on all things China consumer.

Click here to register

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The fast growth of China’s so-called ‘She Economy’ has drawn the attention of many brands, with International Women’s Day becoming the most important event of the year in the competition to win over China’s female consumers. In the lead up to International Women’s Day (8 March) this year, women of different age groups drove up consumption in sectors ranging from household products to strength training equipment to smart home devices. However, rushing to join the race to capture the attention of China’s highly coveted female consumer doesn’t guarantee a win. It’s therefore worth looking at some successful examples of see how others have managed it.

Proya: Gender is never a boundary, prejudice is

Following the success of its campaign last year, the Chinese cosmetics brand Proya revived its hit campaign titled “Gender is never a boundary, prejudice is.” The brand continued to challenge the assumptions made about women based on long-standing gender roles. Other brands from a wide range of industries also participated in the themed event, including women’s sportswear brand Maia Active, baby product maker Babycare and toy maker Kidsland, as well as short video platform Kuaishou and Chinese food delivery giant Meituan. 

In addition to the campaign, Proya produced a short film called Lion Dancing Girls and a special mini-documentary discussing the urgent need for better sex education. The short film features a women’s lion dancing team from Guangzhou, and was narrated by Wang Shuang, a Chinese female footballer. Through this campaign, Proya played on the country’s sports pride, especially the recent rise in support for women’s football following their victory at the AFC Women’s Asian Cup earlier this year.

These campaigns have also set Proya apart by highlighting that gender issues should not be exclusive to women, but are equally important for men too. While women can be as strong as a lion, men shouldn’t be judged for being soft or delicate, or for displaying any of the traits that are traditionally associated with women. This helped the campaign resonate with more sections of society. 

Songmont: Grandmas are never old, just be yourself

While young and middle-aged women are normally the focus of women’s ad campaigns, premium Chinese handbag brand Songmont decided to target the older demographic, declaring that women shouldn’t be defined by their age.

Titled “Grandmas are never old, just be yourself,” the campaign introduced a group of older women with an average age of 65, who were part of the brand’s design team. Scouted by the mother of the brand’s founder, Fu Song, these grandmas were also the founding members of the brand, bringing their knowledge of traditional Chinese handicrafts to modern handbag design. 

The brand staged a photoshoot for the women in Beijing to celebrate International Women’s Day. Older women are rarely the focal point for brand campaigns in China, so the campaign attracted a lot of attention for showcasing the idea of beauty at any age, while also tapping into women’s anxieties about ageing.   

Genki Forest: Unlimited potential

Meanwhile, Chinese direct-to-consumer beverage brand Genki Forest sent a message to young women that they are more than what they think they can be. Called “Unlimited Potential,” Genki’s campaign featured China’s latest teen sensation, Eileen Gu, alongside a group of young girls aged between 3 and 9 years old sharing their future dreams. 

The young interviewees are asked questions like “Does your family support you?” and “Do you think your dream will come true?”. Nearing the end of the video, Eileen Gu talks about her own childhood dreams. With the inclusion of the wildly popular gold medal freestyle skier, Genki Forest has successfully leveraged the hype around the sports idol in China, especially among young Chinese people. More importantly, by engaging both ordinary young girls and capitalising on this rising role model, the brand was able to effectively communicate the message that girls are full of potential and can achieve whatever they want to in life.

As Chinese women become an increasingly crucial consumer segment, we’re seeing female-focused campaigns becoming more inclusive and diverse too. Brands appear more open and more proactive at engaging with different age groups than they have been in previous years, in a bid to foster a more intimate relationship with the female audience. It appears to be working.

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China’s rapid economic development and digitalisation have brought huge changes to the lives of the country’s women. From new work and study prospects to the ability to instantly buy a Gucci handbag online, the unique challenges, opportunities and societal pressures for China’s 685 million women are shifting. A new mini-documentary “Women in China: Social pressures, ‘she-economy,’ and media representation,” created by Dao Insights, delves into some of these issues.

China leads the world with its female entrepreneur power

Chinese women are showing that, as Mao once famously said, they do indeed “hold up half the sky.” Millions of inspiring female entrepreneurs have transformed society by smashing through glass ceilings in their respective industries. Among them are China’s biggest live streamer, Viya,  who has made her way to the top of a billion-dollar industry, and record-breaking YouTuber Li Ziqi, who has shown off rural China’s charm to the world. Meanwhile, TikTok lovers have Zhang Nan to thank as the CEO of one of the world’s most valuable unicorns and TikTok parent company, ByteDance.

Women in China are rushing ahead when it comes to entrepreneurship; China is home to an astonishing two-thirds of the world’s top female billionaires. However, women are still lagging behind in the political sphere, especially at the most senior levels of China’s political system. Just one woman holds a position in the 25-person Politburo, the Party’s top decision-making body.

A still from one of popular YouTuber Li Ziqi’s videos

Women are still expected to be at the helm of the family

While women’s rights have taken a turn for the better, traditional gender roles do still influence today’s society, especially when it comes to family and marriage. The term ‘leftover women,’ which refers to women in their late 20s who are still single, is going out of fashion, but the idea that women must be married by a certain age still holds strong. ‘Marriage pushing’ is common, and young women face considerable pressure from their parents and relatives to get married. Marriage markets, where parents tout their children armed with a CV-like advert containing their educational status, work, income, and height, remain common.

Rising house prices, education costs and career motivations mean that it is becoming more and more unappealing for many Chinese women to have children. Paired with China’s falling birth rate, this has led to concerns about China’s declining population. Since the end of the one-child policy, family planning policies are actively encouraging women to have children, and they are expected to take on the majority of the cleaning, cooking and caring on top of their professional workloads.

Getting women’s rights #trending: Social media, TV shows, campaigns, and more

As in many countries around the world, things are changing and women are taking a stand against gender inequality. China’s 989 million internet users have stirred up noise about women’s rights online. The discussion has been amplified in the public sphere over the last few years through media, trends, marketing campaigns and news stories.

TV shows and films have also played a major role in igniting discussion online. This year, the movies My Sister (我的姐姐) and Hi, Mom (你好, 李焕英) have inspired conversations about women’s roles within the family and the continuing gender preference for men. With an unusually female-focused plot and a (wonder) woman director, Hi, Mom was hugely successful at the Chinese box office and surpassed Wonder Woman to become the top-grossing film of all time with a female director.

Chinese women take hold with a new wave of consumption in the ‘she-economy’

Today, International Women’s Day is also known as ‘Queen’s Day’ as brands encourage women to treat themselves like queens for a day. However, there have also been some more meaningful campaigns as brands seek to resonate with their female audience in China. One of the most talked-about campaigns this year was Neiwai’s ‘no body is nobody,’ which provoked discussion around beauty standards by featuring women of different body shapes, ages and personalities.

Brands like Neiwai are tapping into the ‘she-economy’

In the run-up to International Women’s Day, e-commerce platform Tmall released a report highlighting how women have promoted a new wave of consumption. Indeed, 80% of Tmall’s top new brands in 2020 were focused on female consumer’s needs. This consumption trend is increasingly being referred to as the ‘she-economy’.

Chinese women have also started to display their increased confidence through their personal style. For example, in recent years, the minimalistic ‘sexually frigid’ style (think shapeless and simple clothes) has become popular among women who want to express their individuality.

What does the future hold for women in China?

From birth to the workplace, from the political sphere to the home, women in China still face significant challenges in terms of gender equality. However, sparks of hope abound: women have access to more job opportunities, are graduating from university in greater numbers than ever before, and women’s issues are becoming more widely discussed across society. For companies keen to advance their cause, success awaits.

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Five years ago, after a management buy-out I became the owner and CEO of MB it-Consulting China, a company that specialises in business consulting and sales and implementation services of human capital management cloud technology software. Prior to that, I mainly worked in a corporate environment.

There are pros and cons to being an entrepreneur. My main job is working with companies as a business consultant, and I really enjoy the flexibility and different areas of business I can work in, however being in the consulting business is not always so stable and being fully responsible for a team of consultants and projects especially during the past year has sometimes be a challenge.

I’ve been in China since 1991 and of course seen many changes, in terms of the business environment, social environment and of course our natural environment. I think it’s this ever-changing environment that has provided me with so many great opportunities to learn and grow professionally and personally. Change is definitely a constant in our lives here, and even after 30 years this still challenges as well as motivates me.

I’ve always been positively influenced by many women in my family; strong hardworking women that pursue their dreams, travel, work hard and take care of their family at the same time. I believe that if you don’t stretch yourself you’re contracting, both in body and mind. Keep pushing limits, keep on learning, work hard, go out and explore, and step out of that comfort zone.

I’m grateful that I’ve had the opportunity to work with a few very good leaders, who have taught me valuable functional and practical lessons such as how to lead a team, how to communicate with customers, how to close a difficult sales deal, how to balance work and life, even how to dress for success. It’s from those mentors that I’ve learned to evaluate people’s personal style, behaviour and communication preferences and to align that to my own style to enhance effective communication and cooperation.

I’ve mainly worked in male-dominated industries, but I don’t think being a woman has been a disadvantage. Especially in China which has a large female working population, I think if you know your industry or professional field, people respect you and want to work with you because of your knowledge and not necessarily because you’re a man or a woman.

Diversity in general is very important to any organisation. Different groups of people bring different value to the business and it’s proven that diverse teams deliver better results. This applies to the board of an organisation, a company’s management team as well as functional teams, and should preferably be reflected in all layers of the organisation. Having said that, I’m not necessarily a firm believer in a diversity quota or percentage. I think organisations should hire the best person for the job (taking the team and business needs into consideration), regardless of age, gender, or nationality. “Don’t hire me because I’m a woman, hire me because I’ll bring the most value to your organisation.”

I’m an active member of the ‘women in business’ community in Beijing, but one of the most rewarding experiences is my volunteer work as China Coordinator for Magic Hospital. This not-for-profit organisation aims to bring play and laughter to hospitalised and disadvantaged children, to those who are temporarily or permanently deprived of a carefree childhood. In 2003 we started the clinic clowns programme in China’s largest children hospital and grew our activities from there. However as we are now restricted by Covid regulations, we’re constantly searching for other opportunities to bring some joy and compassion to those who need it so much.

I have always found it’s important to network, within the organisation as well as outside. Search for and build good relationships with the person or people that you can learn from and who can support you in your career progression. Don’t only look upwards, also embrace opportunities that may arise in other functional areas, it will broaden your experience and skills. Pursue further education and training – doing an MBA for example is not only an investment in knowledge but also will expand your network and relationships.

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