Yang Xueyan is the professor and doctoral supervisor in the School of Public Policy and Administration in Xi'an Jiaotong University. Her main research directions are gender imbalance and social stability, gender and public health, and gender-based scientific and technological innovation.
In 2003, Yang Xueyan started to pursue her doctorate in management science and engineering in Xi’an Jiaotong University, following Professor Li Shuzhen and Profesor Zhu Chuzhu, which was her first exposure to gender issues. From 2003 to 2007, working as the coordinator of the research group, Yang Xueyan defined and operationalized the concept of gender equity based on the realistic background of rural reproductive health in China. She designed a scale system of gender equity and developed a tool kit for gender equity promotion in rural reproductive health in China. She also proposed objectives and intervention strategies for the promotion of gender equity in rural reproductive health in China, developed toolkits applicable to different modes of intervention, and applied them to works related to rural reproductive health in China. Relying on this study, Yang Xueyan was awarded the “Advanced Individual in Foreign Affairs” by the National Population and Family Planning Commission. She has also been a gender consultant for the Seventh Cycle Project of the United Nations Population Fund for a long time and received a letter of thanks from the International Cooperation Department of the National Population and Family Planning Commission. Her work has been clearly acknowledged.
From 2007 to 2011, Yang Xueyan stayed at the school serving as a teacher. She continued to cooperate with Professor Li Shuzhu and Professor Zhu Chuzhu to conduct in-depth research on the governance system and policies of gender imbalance and the micro-consequences of gender imbalance. In addition, she applied academic research results to policy practice, and proposed strategic planning and implementation plan of gender imbalance governance applicable to the macro level of the country and the micro level of the city. She wroteThe Outline of the National Implementation Plan for Caring for Girls, and theNational Survey of Needs for Action on Caring for Girlsand so on, which were adopted by the Party Group Meeting of the National Population and Family Planning Commission and were selected into theWorking Guide for Caring for Girls. She also wrote an internationally-oriented Green Paper,China's Care for Girls Act, which was adopted and published by the National Population and Family Planning Commission. She wrote a research report on “Policy Innovation in the National Care for Girls Action – Strategic Planning, Governance Model and Practice” and “Work Plan for Addressing the High Sex Ratio of the Birth Population in the National Caring for Girls in 2011-2015”; its main idea was adopted by the National Population and Family Planning Commission's "national action to care for girls to comprehensively address the problem of high sex ratio in the birth population in 2011-2015". Based on the academic research results, pilot counties and districts were selected to carry out the policies, and a micro-level model -- the "Seven Guarantees Policy" system was established for comprehensively managing the gender imbalance issues, with its connotation of providing guarantee to pension, health care, medical care, quality of life, schooling, employment, production and equal rights. Meanwhile, all the factors causing gender inequality and the high sex ratio at birth had been comprehensively interfered, and the effect had been recognized. At that time, Ms. Zhao Baige, deputy director of the National Population and Family Planning Commission, acknowledged professor Yang Xueyan’s proposals in person. In 2014, Professor Yang was named “Excellent Science Popularizer” in Shaanxi Province. In 2016, she was appointed as “Member of Shaanxi Provincial Policy and Regulation and Gender Equality and Children Priority Assessment Advisory Committee”.
After 2011, Professor Yang Xueyan extended her research to two cutting-edge areas, namely, the adolescent health risk behavior and gender equality in engineering science and technology innovation. In terms of adolescent health behavior, she found that Chinese adolescents' self-harm behavior was different from that of other countries in the world, therefore, she gave her explanations from the angle of adolescent gender role conflict. Through independent survey, professor Yang found that there was a gender pattern in Chinese engineering students in the professional persistence, revealing the different impacts of gender role conflict on the professional persistence of different gender college students. Relying on the advanced researches, Professor Yang Xueyan has been invited to attend high-level international academic conferences for many times. Her English thesis was accepted to be orally presented by the Gender Summit 9 held by EU headquarters in Brussels, Belgium. Her thesis was also selected as the keynote report of the 2017 Gender Summit 10 in Tokyo, Japan as well as of the Gender and Technology Policy Symposium in Seoul, South Korea. She also positively introduced and evaluated the Chinese government's efforts and achievements in promoting population health and gender equality, establishing a positive international image of China as a responsible major country.
In 2015, Professor Yang Xueyan obtained the Support Plan for Young Talents in colleges and universities in Shaanxi province and the Support Plan for Young Top-notch Talents in Xi'an Jiaotong University (category A). Taking this as a starting point, she gave a sharp capture of the development trends and characteristics of the new era. Relying on the hot issues in mainstream disciplines, she carries out research with gender as the main line, proposed and verified gender models, models and theories based on China's practical background, promoting the breakthrough of gender research and realizing gender mainstreaming in the field of social science research.
