Digital Exclusion, Gender Oppression, and How Social Workers can Advocate for Digital Feminism in China

Abstract

For the past decade, the pace of China’s digital and technological development has been rapidly increasing. While this growth creates economic opportunities, it has negative impacts for Chinese women who are marginalized at the intersections of gender, class, and geographic location. This paper adopts an intersectional feminist lens to examine how Chinese women experience digital exclusion and gender oppression in the digital era. To do so, it discusses (1) existing technologies that reflect and perpetuate gender stereotypes through gendered technology design, (2) digital spaces and media censorship that disenfranchise women, and (3) AI surveillance and unfair labor practices that oppress women.
This paper calls for social work practices in digital feminism at the micro, mezzo, and macro levels, specifically in promoting gender equality in training and design, leading feminist initiatives, and promoting digital accessibility and data protection.