“When nobody listens, go online”: The “807” labor movement against workplace sexism in China's tech industry
Authors
Publication Date
2023Journal Title
Gender, Work and Organization
ISSN
0968-6673
Publisher
Wiley
Language
en
Type
Article
This Version
AO
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Metadata
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Liu, H. (2023). “When nobody listens, go online”: The “807” labor movement against workplace sexism in China's tech industry. Gender, Work and Organization https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.12859
Abstract
Abstract: An online petition, signed by more than six thousand Chinese tech workers in August 2021, is the latest example of an online labor movement in the authoritarian context of China. Combining interviews and publicly available information, this article provides a descriptive account of an activist movement, explains workers' demands, and discusses the characteristics of online labor activism. It explores how Chinese tech workers fight collectively against a gender‐discriminatory workplace culture as they strive to bring justice to a sexual crime victim without affiliating themselves with official political organizations. The research findings suggest that while rising feminist consciousness has the potential to motivate collective action by workers, such motivation is highly dependent upon individual experiences at work and tends to be event‐based and of limited continuity. It argues that rising awareness of women's rights provides a new kind of legitimacy to labor activism, and a new way to express labor concerns in a context of increased criminalization of labor organizational activities in China today.
Keywords
ORIGINAL ARTICLE, China, digital economy, industrial relations, labor activism, tech worker
Identifiers
gwao12859
External DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.12859
This record's URL: https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/336890
Rights
Licence:
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
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