scholarly journals Left Behind? Migration Stories of Two Women in Rural China

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 47-57 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Cindy Fan ◽  
Chen Chen
Keyword(s):  
Young Children ◽  
Rural Women ◽  
Rural China ◽  
Gender Ideology ◽  
Safety Net ◽  
Chinese Families ◽  
Left Behind ◽  
Women's Participation ◽  
Migrant Work ◽  
Younger Generation

Women being left behind in the countryside by husbands who migrate to work has been a common phenomenon in China. On the other hand, over time, rural women’s participation in migration has increased precipitously, many doing so after their children are older, and those of a younger generation tend to start migrant work soon after finishing school. Although these women may no longer be left behind physically, their work, mobility, circularity, and frequency of return continue to be governed by deep-rooted gender ideology that defines their role primarily as caregivers. Through the biographical stories of two rural women in Anhui, this article shows that traditional gender norms persist across generations. Yingyue is of an older generation and provided care to her husband, children, and later grandchildren when she was left behind, when she participated in migration, and when she returned to her village. Shuang is 30 years younger and aspires to urban lifestyle such as living in apartments and using daycare for her young children. Yet, like Yingyue, Shuang’s priority is caregiving. Her decisions, which are in tandem with her parents-in-law, highlight how Chinese families stick together as a safety net. Her desire to earn wages, an activity much constrained by her caregiving responsibility to two young children, illustrates a strong connection between income-generation ability and identity among women of the younger generation. These two stories underscore the importance of examining how women are left behind not only physically but in their access to opportunities such as education and income-generating activity.

Exploring the Effective Approaches for Chinese Rural Women to Participate in Community Governance

2015 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 65-89
Author(s):  
Xiaoli Wang ◽  
Fangqin Du ◽  
Huiying Li
Keyword(s):  
Rural Communities ◽  
Rural Women ◽  
Good Governance ◽  
Rural China ◽  
Transitional Period ◽  
Family Status ◽  
Community Governance ◽  
Women's Participation ◽  
Global And Local

In the research on the rural women’s political participation, it concerns why they participate in community governance and how we can ensure their real participation. With a case study of Zhoushan Village’s experience in successfully promoting the empowerment of rural women so that they may truly participate in community governance and then proceed to promote structural reform in the community, this paper examines the effective approaches taken over the past decade for rural women’s participation in community governance, and the far-reaching effects that their participation has had on individual and family status, the economy, society and culture. The experience of Zhoushan Village, which has been the result of interaction, is global and local, original and contextual, co-created and accepted by local women and villagers together. It will make a special contribution to good governance of rural communities in the transitional period of social governance in rural China.

China's E-Commerce: Empowering Rural Women?

2019 ◽  
Vol 238 ◽  
pp. 418-437 ◽  
Author(s):  
Haiqing Yu ◽  
Lili Cui
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Market Economy ◽  
Rural Women ◽  
Rural China ◽  
Economic Activities ◽  
Female Entrepreneurship ◽  
Political Empowerment ◽  
Women's Participation ◽  
Gendered Roles ◽  
And Gender

AbstractThis article employs a feminist political economy perspective to explore the connection between e-commerce, entrepreneurship and gender in rural China. It discusses gendered engagement with, and discourses of, the new digital economy represented by Taobao villages, and asks: how has the success of rural e-commerce impacted the evolving gender mandate and hierarchy in a competitive market economy in rural China? Has rural women's participation in digital economic activities changed their gendered roles and the patriarchal structure in their family and village? This article argues that women's socioeconomic enablement does not necessarily translate into cultural and political empowerment. The enabling potential of female entrepreneurship is tempered by traditional constraints on women and digital capitalist exploitation of their cheap, flexible and docile labour.

Subcontracting work for rural women in China’s factories without walls

2017 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 216-232
Author(s):  
Ren Shouyun
Keyword(s):  
Women Workers ◽  
Rural Women ◽  
Rural China ◽  
Advocacy Groups ◽  
Random Group ◽  
Family Responsibilities ◽  
Production Chain ◽  
Left Behind ◽  
Rural Industrialization ◽  
Experiences Of Women

Industrial subcontracting work in rural China has been framed as a win-win strategy for women and industry. Drawing on fieldwork conducted in Hebei Province, I argue that far from being the main beneficiaries of subcontracting work, such rural industrialization has instead subjected women to a gendered form of capitalist exploitation. First, the women employed were not a random group but were young, healthy women who already had industrial skills, and thus did not need training. Second, these women were rendered immobile by their family responsibilities. Third, the problems of ‘left-behind’ children and an urban, modern notion of motherhood trickling down to the countryside has constructed a notion of virtuous motherhood. Further undermining their position, women workers had no influence over production or profits in the subcontracting chain. Despite the promise that subcontracting work would be flexible for women, such flexibility benefits the production chain more than women workers. Local (and changing) gender and development dynamics in rural China condition the experiences of women involved in initiatives that are seen as a win-win situation by some development agencies, advocacy groups and policy researchers.

scholarly journals Early Childhood Reading in Rural China and Obstacles to Caregiver Investment in Young Children: A Mixed-Methods Analysis

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 1457
Author(s):  
Rui Li ◽  
Nathan Rose ◽  
Yi Ming Zheng ◽  
Yunwei Chen ◽  
Sean Sylvia ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Mixed Methods ◽  
Cognitive Development ◽  
Young Children ◽  
Parenting Practices ◽  
Rural China ◽  
Reading Practices ◽  
Rural Villages ◽  
Survey Results ◽  
Childhood Reading

Studies have shown that nearly half of rural toddlers in China have cognitive delays due to an absence of stimulating parenting practices, such as early childhood reading, during the critical first three years of life. However, few studies have examined the reasons behind these low levels of stimulating parenting, and no studies have sought to identify the factors that limit caregivers from providing effective early childhood reading practices (EECRP). This mixed-methods study investigates the perceptions, prevalence, and correlates of EECRP in rural China, as well as associations with child cognitive development. We use quantitative survey results from 1748 caregiver–child dyads across 100 rural villages/townships in northwestern China and field observation and interview data with 60 caregivers from these same sites. The quantitative results show significantly low rates of EECRP despite positive perceptions of early reading and positive associations between EECRP and cognitive development. The qualitative results suggest that low rates of EECRP in rural China are not due to the inability to access books, financial or time constraints, or the absence of aspirations. Rather, the low rate of book ownership and absence of reading to young children is driven by the insufficient and inaccurate knowledge of EECRP among caregivers, which leads to their delayed, misinformed reading decisions with their young children, ultimately contributing to developmental delays.

Left Behind by COVID-19

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 17-31
Author(s):  
Jue Wang
Keyword(s):  
Family Life ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Rural China ◽  
Gender Inequalities ◽  
Left Behind ◽  
Socially Isolated

“Left-behind” children in rural China are those whose parents seek work in urban areas and leave them behind in their hometowns. In this article, I focus on the experiences of five young “left-behind” girls who were socially isolated because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Based on the Chinese authorities’ instruction to schools to “Stop classes, but don’t stop learning,” I examine microlevel data on the tensions and challenges experienced by these girls during the COVID-19 lockdown. I look at how the pandemic has affected these girls in relation to school and family life and suggest that it has exposed and magnified gender inequalities, particularly those related to the maltreatment exerted by their guardians and/or brothers, that have left them even further behind.

Grandparent-child cohesion, friendship quality, and left-behind children’s positive/negative affect in rural China

2021 ◽  
pp. 135910532110499
Author(s):  
Jingxin Zhao ◽  
Jing Ge ◽  
Qianyu Li
Keyword(s):  
Negative Affect ◽  
Positive Affect ◽  
Rural China ◽  
Friendship Quality ◽  
Interaction Effects ◽  
Positive And Negative Affect ◽  
Left Behind ◽  
Emotional Adaptation ◽  
Reinforcement Model ◽  
Intimate Exchange

This study examined the roles of grandparent-child cohesion and friendship quality in left-behind children’s positive and negative affect compared with non-left-behind children. Data from 557 participants indicated that grandparent-child cohesion and friendship quality predicted children’s emotional adaptation. Friend trust and support and intimate exchange had a stronger predictive effect on positive affect among non-left-behind children. Moreover, the interaction effects between grandparent-child cohesion and friendship quality on children’s positive affect supported the reinforcement model, while the interaction effects on negative affect supported the reinforcement model among left-behind children but supported the compensation model among non-left-behind children.

scholarly journals SEPARATED KIN: RURAL-URBAN MIGRATION AND MENTAL HEALTH TRAJECTORIES OF OLDER ADULTS LEFT BEHIND IN RURAL CHINA

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. S880-S880
Author(s):  
Zhiyong Lin
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Older Adults ◽  
Depressive Symptoms ◽  
Rural China ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Migrant Children ◽  
Urban Migration ◽  
Left Behind ◽  
Rate Of Increase ◽  
The Impact

Abstract As the processes of urbanization and globalization have intensified across the world, a burgeoning literature has documented the impact of emigration on the health of family members left behind in emigrant communities. Although the association between children’s migration and parental well-being is well documented, few have examined the health implications of children’s migration in the milieu of multiple children and further differentiated between children’s short-term and long-term migration. Therefore, I argue that it is not the geographic locality of a single child but the composition of all children’s location that matters. I further suggest that the impact of children’s migration on parental wellbeing is conditioned on the duration of children’s migration. Using a six waves longitudinal data (2001-2015) collected in rural China, this paper compares mental health (measured as depressive symptoms) trajectories of old adults (aged 60 and older) across different compositions of local and migrant children over a 14-year span. Results from growth curve models show that parents having more migrant children relative to local children experience a more rapid increase in depressive symptoms. In addition, older adults who have their most children migrate away for three or more waves of data have experienced the steepest rate of increase in depressive symptoms. These findings provide new evidence to support the life course processes of mental health disparities among older adults from the perspective of intergenerational proximity.

PARENTAL AND SIBLING MIGRATION AND HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE AMONG RURAL CHILDREN IN CHINA

2015 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
pp. 129-142 ◽  
Author(s):  
MING WEN ◽  
KELIN LI
Keyword(s):  
Blood Pressure ◽  
Rural China ◽  
Random Effect ◽  
Rural Children ◽  
Urban Migration ◽  
Nutrition Survey ◽  
Prospective Survey ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Left Behind ◽  
Health And Nutrition

SummaryThis study examines the associations between parental and sibling rural-to-urban migration and blood pressure (BP) of rural left-behind children (LBC) in rural China. Analysis was based on the 2000, 2004, 2006 and 2009 waves of longitudinal data from the China Health and Nutrition Survey, which is an ongoing prospective survey covering nine provinces with an individual-level response rate of 88%. Blood pressure levels were measured by trained examiners at three consecutive times on the same visit and the means of three measurements were used as the final BP values. An ordinal BP measure was then created using a recently validated age–sex-specified distribution for Chinese children and adolescents, distinguishing normal BP, pre-hypertension and hypertension. Random effect modelling was performed. Different migration circumstances play different roles in LBC's BP with mother-only and both-parent migration being particularly detrimental and father-only and sibling-only migration either having no association or a negative association with LBC's BP levels or odds of high BP. In conclusion, the link between family migration and left-behind children's blood pressure is complex, and depends on who is the person out-migrating.

The Effect of Parental Migration on the Educational Attainment of Their Left-Behind Children in Rural China

2014 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 1037-1080 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sophie Xuefei Wang
Keyword(s):  
Theoretical Model ◽  
Educational Attainment ◽  
Instrumental Variables ◽  
Rural China ◽  
Probit Model ◽  
School Enrollment ◽  
Reduced Form ◽  
Parental Migration ◽  
Left Behind ◽  
Negative Effect

Abstract About 60 million children under the age of 18 are left behind by their parents in rural China. This paper studies the effect of migrant parents on the educational attainment of their left-behind children in rural China. A theoretical model of optimal schooling in the context of parental migration is proposed. Then, reduced-form equations are estimated using probit model, instrumental variables probit model, and linear instrumental variables model. Results show that parental migration has a negative effect on children’s school enrollment. This negative effect is significant and sizable on the school enrollment of boys, but insignificant on the school enrollment of girls. The most important source of this robust negative effect on boys is the absence of fathers. Results suggest that left-behind mothers or relatives cannot fulfill fathers’ role successfully in disciplining boys and help with their educational needs.

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