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Fiona MacPhail and Xiao-yuan Dong
University of South Australia
'Domestic Work, Paid Work, and Women's Status in the Household:
Evidence from Rural Workers in China'
'Married women go home' has become a populist, if not official slogan in post-Mao
China which contrasts with 'Women can do everything men can do' in the previous
era. This paper examines the gendered division of labour and decision-making patterns
in the household, and their relationships with waged work in rural China. The
analysis is based upon qualitative interviews with 25 women and men employed in
Township and Village Enterprises, in rural communities in the provinces of Jiangsu
and Shandong and some quantitative analysis of a larger sample, also undertaken
in 1999-2000. Women continue to do most of the unpaid work and hold the traditional
norm of women as responsible for the household. Women stated that their lives
were easier than those of their mothers - not because men have increased their
share of domestic labour, but due to some mechanisation of household work and
help of mothers-in-law with child care. There is a strong relationship between
decisions and divisions and wage work and income, and while women acknowledged
the operation of gender discrimination in the workplace, they also expressed satisfaction
with the personal and financial dimensions of waged work over agricultural work.
While some women in urban areas have indicated their desire to return to the home,
the 'married women go home' attitude does not appear to be widely shared and may
have adverse consequences for the position of women. Such tensions over gender
roles in society are reflected in the position of the All China Women's Federation
which promotes both nurturing and paid work for women.
Bio: Fiona is broadly interested in the area of work and gender relations. She has recently been working with a research team on the impact of market reforms in rural China.
<Fiona.McPhail@unisa.edu.au>
(schedule sunday or monday)