The Awakening and Expression of Women's Consciousness in Modern Women's Creation: Taking Modern Women Journalists as an Example
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.54097/bjedp064Keywords:
Modern female journalists; female consciousness; journalistic writing; gender discourse; women's periodicals.Abstract
Modern China underwent a pivotal period of social transformation, during which the emergence of women's periodicals provided a crucial platform for the awakening of female consciousness, becoming the vanguard of public opinion driving gender paradigm shifts. This study centres on representative modern women's periodicals from 1898 to 1907, such as The Journal of Women's Studies and The Women's World, examining how female journalists constructed a female discourse system and participated in modern China's social transformation through various genres including political commentary, criticism, and literary supplements. Research reveals that female journalists advocated for the establishment of women's education, promoted economic self-reliance, and criticised feudal practices such as foot-binding and arranged marriages. By integrating women's issues with nationalist discourse centred on saving the nation from peril, they gradually shifted female consciousness from individual life experiences and rights demands towards broad participation in national destiny and public affairs. This discursive practice not only expanded women's expressive space but also progressively challenged the traditional gender power structure of ‘men outside, women inside’. Combining close textual analysis, word frequency statistics, and social network analysis, this study reveals the historical role of women's periodicals in reshaping gender concepts and facilitating sociocultural transformation, offering fresh perspectives for modern gender and media research.
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