A Shanghai lady with a tattoo on her back. Tattoos have become very popular among Shanghai women in recent years. [Photo: China News Service]

Female entrepreneurs in Shanghai give a performance at a cheongsam show. [Photo: China News Service]

Over the past 30 years, wider job opportunities have become available for Shanghai women as the city enjoys its prosperity. They have become less dependent on men as their earning potential improves, said Lu Zhen, an expert from the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences.

Now Shanghai career women are younger and better educated, and many of them are incomers to the city.

Educated and prosperous Shanghai women get more enjoyment from life and work. They now fill more than 30 percent of professional and administrative positions in Shanghai, compared with 13 percent 30 years ago, according to a survey.

More care for their looks and a fancy for travelling abroad

One of the biggest changes in the women of Shanghai is their looks. The survey also indicates that they spend much more of their annual income on beauty treatments and hairdressing.

Additionally, more and more Shanghai women are keen on traveling abroad, compared with the few families who could send their children to study overseas in the 1980s. Nowadays it is not unusual even for elderly women to take a trip abroad.

An increased flow of successful newcomers

Many of the female white collar workers in Shanghai are not native to the city. The number of non-local female employees has increased in the past 30 years, now accounting for almost 40 percent of the total, which shows the extent to which Shanghai has opened to the outside world since 1978. Among the newcomers are many successful women.

(China.org.cn by Yang Xi, December 12, 2008)