"In the final analysis, I think it's because people have not put men and women on the same level," she said. "Take me as an example. It was not I who posted the photos and personal advertisement online to find a boyfriend. People said I looked very different from the stereotypical female doctor. But I think the poll correctly shows that a woman has always been at a disadvantage even if she has earned a doctor's degree. People tend to judge a woman's value from looks or whether she is virtuous, but ignore communication on a spiritual level, which I think is the key to a marriage."

Li of New Media Women Network shares the opinion expressed in the book Gender Lives (2009) by Julia T. Wood, a professor in University of North Carolina whose work includes gender and feminist theories. People thought that if a woman advanced her intellect, she would be "unsexed", Wood wrote.

While Luo was criticized by many scholars, feminists and women with advanced degrees, Fang Hong, a professor from Nanjing University who has been teaching women's literature in English, had a different take.

"I think with China's economic growth and modernization, we have entered a time when gender equality should be built based on the acknowledgment of the differences between the two sexes, which is the mode of gender equality in other countries," Fang said.

In Norway, for example, in order to encourage both men and women to look after children the government provides both sexes with maternity leave at full pay. Women have the right to breastfeed their infants at work. In that country, 72 percent of women work, compared with 62 percent in Britain, 61 percent in Germany and 45 percent in Spain.

Chen Wen, 31, a friend of Zheng's at Nanjing University, graduated with a PhD in sociology in 2010. She got married before graduation and gave birth to a baby in August 2013.

She then decided to go back to work only two months after childbirth, but according to law, Chinese women receive at least 98 days of maternity leave. She is now teaching at a university in Nanjing's Party School of Jiangsu Committee of the Communist Party of China.

"I could not give up the course that I taught because I finally managed to get it after applying many times," Chen said.

Somehow she manages to juggle the baby and work effectively. Zheng said she was surprised to see that Chen kept her house clean.

"She is very busy, but when I arrived at her home, it's so clean that you cannot imagine she has a baby. I thought this is a very difficult time for any woman, but she said she didn't think so," Zheng said.

"If all women think we are weaker than men and should therefore dodge hardship, then society can't progress," Chen said.

Deliberate choices

While she may not have dodged hardship, she has made deliberate choices. The university in Nanjing arranged several course options for Chen but she insisted on teaching only one because she wanted to spend more time with her baby.

While female PhDs are fighting for their careers and study, their male counterparts may not see it. Liu Hao, 29, is a doctoral candidate in National Astronomical Observatories in Beijing. "What you need in scholarship is effort, so I don't see there is any discrimination," he said. "But I think, of course, that more efforts are needed to improve women's social status in China, especially in terms of social awareness - including women's recognition and positioning of themselves."

Roy Gu, a teacher at Shanghai International Studies University, said he can't say there is discrimination against female scholars because "you can't tell if the writers of papers or participants in projects are men or women".

"Also, I don't think China's society has many limits for women in pursuing careers. I think the problem is that Chinese people discriminate against full-time mothers, which is more serious," he said, because many people think women need to be in the workplace, not at home.

"I suggest that female doctoral candidates should spend more time with their babies if they have one, even if they have to delay graduation," he said.

Women's activist Lyu dismissed the emphasis on a woman's role as wife and mother. "Family happiness is also important for men but, unfortunately, men's need is understated and women's role is overstated," she said.

Lyu said wiping out sexual discrimination will require a substantial effort by the government - legislation, regulation and publicity about gender equality.

"Although this is a free market, with opportunities seemingly for everyone, in many cases women's opportunities are taken away because of the lack of concrete law," she said. "People are talking about gender equality every day as if it has already been achieved. Sometimes if women encounter difficulties, people will attribute them to personal problems.

"Which direction Chinese women will go depends on our own efforts as well as the changes in the country's recognition of women's role."

There may be some tension on that point.

A survey of women's social status in China released in 2011 by the All-China Women's Federation found that 61.6 percent of men and 54.6 percent of women agreed that "the field for men is in public and the domain for women is within the household".

That was a marked increase of 7.7 and 4.4 percentage points over survey results in 2000.

Contact the writer at yangyangs@chinadaily.com.cn