At the Wednesday Gender Seminar on March 16, Ph.D. candidate Ms. ZHOU Siyuan from the Gender Studies Programme and Department of Sociology at the Chinese University of Hong Kong brought her sharing. Her dissertation title is “Becoming Insurance Agents in Hong Kong: Career Choice and Social Mobility among Highly Educated Women from Mainland China.” The insurance industry is very mature in Hong Kong, which has attracted many highly educated women to migrate to Hong Kong from mainland China, engaging in this industry. To explore the gendered opportunities and challenges they encountered, the researcher conducted in-depth interviews with 32 women working in the industry at various career stages and ethnographic observations at insurance agents’ offices, and during their daily and recruitment activities to explore their motivations to enter the insurance industry and how they were recruited. At the same time, the researcher is also studying how the insurance industry combines femininity and professionalism.

The recruitment process includes two dimensions, institutionally and individually. New IANG graduates who enter the internships and trainee programs build up connection with professional financial advisors and access to diversified training contents at the institutional level.

The recruitment at individual level is conducted through social networking like “港漂圈”, hometown associations, and alumni organizations. WeChat and Red are the common platforms to build women’s professional image as insurance agents.

In fact, women are more than welcome for they are considered to be more independent, patient, and thoughtful. Women utilize cross-border information and resources due to their Mainland identity. They are motivated by personal career aspirations and family support. However, they face double marginalization. First, gender discrimination harms women’s career mobility. The second is geographical as they are female immigrants, which is an excuse for different treatment between the locals in the workplace and them. In short, women still face structural inequalities in the workplace due to the patriarchal gender division of labour.

 Written by: DONG Xueyin, YANG Ming