TURNING THE TIDE

Psychologist seeks to combat deep-rooted bias in society and dispel feelings of gender inferiority, Wang Qian reports.

In psychologist Zhang Chun's consult ing room in Xiamen, Fujian province, she has witnessed the struggles of women, their awakening in society and their changing attitudes to traditional family roles.

In more than 3,000 hours of consulting hundreds of women, she finds they share a similar dilemma which she labels the "double bind". It is a psychological predicament, in which a person receives from a single source conflicting messages that allow no appropriate response to be made.

"Under this logic, women should be pretty, but not too pretty; women should be independent, but not too independent. It's like women are trapped in a paradox," Zhang, 41, says.