In 2022, China’s population shrank for the first time since the famine in the early 1960s under Mao Zedong’s catastrophic “Great Leap Forward” campaign. This seismic demographic transformation was preceded by plummeting birth rates in recent years, as women in China have increasingly turned their backs on marriage and children. Leta Hong Fincher looks at what lies ahead for women’s rights in China as the government carries out a pro-natalist, pro-marriage propaganda campaign and a harsh crackdown on feminist activism.
About the Speaker
Dr. Leta Hong Fincher is author of the critically acclaimed book, Leftover Women: The Resurgence of Gender Inequality in China, with an updated, 10th anniversary edition published by Bloomsbury this November. She is also author of Betraying Big Brother: The Feminist Awakening in China (Verso 2018) and an Adjunct Assistant Professor at Columbia University. She won the Society of Professional Journalists Sigma Delta Chi award for her China reporting and was the first American to receive a Ph.D. in Sociology from Tsinghua University. She has a master's degree from Stanford University and a bachelor's degree with high honors from Harvard University.