The Increasing Role Played by the Females in the Chinese Economic Development : An investigation of the challenges facing the upward mobile female in the leadership ladders

With the increasing role played by the females in Chinese economic development, females draw attention from the public promptly. Since Chinese female achieved legally equal rights with male recently, female are still underrepresented at higher organizational levels. The previous researches on female leadership are plentiful and covered various dimensions. In Chinese context, the female leadership is embodied with the empowerment of female entrepreneurs. Hence, this research is concentrate the challenges facing Chinese female in their work, to meet the attention of why there are less top female leaders and why it is more difficult for female to approach higher leadership levels. The main research question of this thesis is: Why Chinese female facing more challenges/difficulties to move up in their leadership ladders compared to male? Following the qualitative research method, this thesis applies the theory of leadership, gender perspectives in leadership, and female leadership as the theoretical framework. Then, six Chinese female were interviewed for the investigation as the primary data collection. From the dedicated perspectives of the interviewees, the answers are concluded about the research question: ◆ Transformational leadership style makes female fit into male-dominant context. ◆ The gender bias and stereotypes of female still exist and played negative effects. ◆ Balancing the needs between their families and their work is a challenge for female to overcome.