State Policy and Women`s Autonomy in Rural China

Abstract

In the 1970s, Western academic debates on gender equality largely saw China’s agricultural collectivization as an advance toward women’s liberation. Collectivization was a positively valued theme in the developmental paradigm of the time, which almost axiomatically implied benign effects on women. Rural decollectivization in the post-Mao period therefore led many to wonder about its implications for women r status. This study approaches the issue from a different angle and offers a new perspective: that of rural Chinese women. Based on their experiences and perceptions as related by rural women themselves, my research analyzes and weighs women’s gains and losses in the two distinctive periods of collectivization and decollectivization.