Women and Migration in Contemporary China

Abstract

This paper shows that the huge numbers of rural migrants who have left the Chinese countryside in recent years to go to work in the newly industrialising coastal areas have included a substantial minority of women. It discusses the gender-specific aspects of migration and the occupations taken up by female migrants. It also considers issues such as female autonomy, fertility and prostitution in relation to migration. It contends that since the state restricts permanent settlement in the urban areas, rural to urban migration in China is characterised by a high level of circulation. The result is that successive waves of migrants return to the rural areas to marry and have families bringing with them new ideas about gender relations and family roles. Migration, especially female migration, thus presents a challenge to the traditional patriarchal family in the countryside and offers rural women the chance to negotiate more power and choice in their lives.

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