In China, it’s the women who call the shots

[Vinod Gopani]

Beijing : Wang Suwei, 55, holds the purse strings in her family. Each month, her husband hands his salary to her. She gives him back 20 per cent but decides how to spend the rest, from what kind of shampoo to what brand of television to buy. “Nowadays we take things easy. Whatever we like to eat, we buy. If we want to play, we play. If we want to sing, we go to the Karaoke bar and sing,” says Wang, a dowdy looking housewife who is full of smiles.

Understanding the hearts of Chinese women is becoming increasingly important for Chinese and foreign companies as they try to tap the lucrative China market of 1.3 billion people, market research experts say. Contrary to many other countries, Chinese women, especially in the middle class, are calling the shots in household purchases, from homes to even automobiles, they say.

“Women in their marriages in China have a lot of power and that obviously translates into a lot of decision making power when it comes to consumer spending,” says Tom Doctoroff, Northeast Asia director of the advertising conglomerate Mr J. Walter Thompson. Seventy-seven per cent of married women are the decision makers when it comes to food, clothing and essential commodities, according to a survey conducted recently by Huakun Consumer Guidance Centre.

Women’s personal income is also rising, says Mr Yang Xiaoyan, a professor at the Guangdong Foreign Language Foreign Trade College. “Unlike before, husbands nowadays do not always make more money. In China’s economic changes, women sometimes have an easier time finding jobs, because they are more sought after in the growing service sector,” Mr Yang says.

Women from the countryside working as sales ladies or maids often earn more than their husband. “The most dramatic changes have happened to Chinese women in the past decades,” Mr Jesse Price, chair of the American Chamber of Commerce Shanghai’s marketing committee, was quoted by China Daily saying recently. “American businesses are fascinated to know their female consumers, not just facts and figures but also the cultural context underneath.” But Chinese women are not easy to understand.

“In Chinese society, women’s main role is to be the loving wife, kind mother — an angel, but there’s always been latent ambition, so women in China are extremely aggressive, but unlike American women, they have to project more femininity because of their Confucian heritage,” Mr Doctoroff says.

“You can have a woman with power tools on her desk and they’ll be decorated with Hello Kitty stickers.” Shopping malls and stores are increasingly restructuring their layout and marketing strategies to target women, while jewellery stores and skincare products stores are opening in unlikely places — supermarkets. At the Huapu supermarket in Beijing, display cases showing alluring $1,485 jade bracelets are just a few steps from the checkout.