In the article, based on the creative work of representatives of Russian and Chinese literature of the second half of the twentieth century: Lyudmila Ulitskaya, Lyudmila Petrushevskaya, Zhang Ailin (Eileen Chang) and Zhang Jie - the author defines the features of women's prose of the period under consideration. The purpose of the work is to identify the specifics of the reflection of the family theme in the works of these authors. The article argues that the attitude of Chinese women writers to the family was largely determined by traditional ideas, the influence of which on public life did not weaken in the twentieth century. In the works of Russian authors, the family theme is revealed in a broad literary and cultural context. In the course of comparing the works, it is established that Lyudmila Petrushevskaya and Lyudmila Ulitskaya, in contrast to the Chinese writers, comprehend the lives of their heroines in the perspective of broader historical and cultural generalizations. In the works we are considering, Ulitskaya and Petrushevskaya turn to myth in search of the reasons for the distortion of female nature. The Chinese women's narrative emphasizes a close connection with national issues, so the fate of the heroines of the novels of Eileen Chang and Zhang Jie are inseparable from the issues that have been brewing in Chinese society since the emergence of the May Fourth movement. In Chinese women's health, the problem of women's lack of the rights that men have in Chinese society, despite all the achievements of the twentieth century, has become central.