Protecting China's safety also women's work

• Source: Global Times
• [21:49 March 02 2010]
• Comments

An all-female missile research team on a remote plateau Photo: Zhang Jiangang

Editor's Note:

China's military employs about 2.3 million people, but the vast majority of these are still men. Global Times (GT) reporter Peng Kuang, special correspondents Zhou Ming and Xiao Chunyang, interviewed four female military researchers on missile technology with Second Artillery Equipment Academy, Xiao Xiyu(Xiao), Lu Hong(Lu), Ren Ningli(Ren) and Wang Hongxia(Wang), on the difficulties and gains of being a woman in a heavily male-dominated field.

GT: How did you choose military R&D research as a career?

Xiao: I didn't make a special choice to go into national defense, but it just turned out that way. In 1977, I entered the Changsha Institute of Technology in Hunan Province, the predecessor of the current National University of Defense Technology.

At that time, I was not interested in arms factories, which looked like something that threatens peace. But in the college, we studied lots of mechanical topics, which were also a major part of my graduate research. I did not realize these research topics were coming from arms manufacturers.

After the Changsha Institute of Technology transformed into a military school, I found I had intensively worked in this field already.

Since then, I started to work directly in military programs, developed my interest in the job, and started my career.

Ren: I joined the army at the end of the 1980s after graduating from a master's degree program. The PLA was facing restructuring at that time. Many new types of equipment were required, and one of them exactly matched my research field. So, lots of work was assigned to me.

Almost all my schoolmates choose to study overseas after they graduated. Compared to them, my experience is really special.

I think when faced with high expectations, everyone will want to live up to them. In retrospect, I did make significant progress in my work, and I was given a first-class merit award, which is quite remarkable.

Wang: Our research institute was established in 2003, and the testing team was also set up in that year. Due to some limits in the military structure, this team was made up of eight female officers. Our duty is technical support for testing, usually in some remote areas.

GT: Are there any advantages or disadvantages to being a woman in such work?

Xiao: I think women are more careful and more sensitive to details, which is an advantage for them.

At the same time, good research needs comprehensive thinking. Not only military issues, but all aspects of national security should be involved in the general design. Those may not match your research areas, but you still need to explore them.

Sometimes the workers in the factories thought I was very bold in making changes in places that no-one else had noticed, but that is the advantage of women being more sensitive to details. Success or failure is decided in details, especially when the structure has been decided.