Globalization and women in China - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The study of the impact of globalization on women in China examines the role and status of Chinese women relative to the political and cultural changes that have taken place in the 20th century as a consequence of globalization

Globalization

Globalization refers to the increasingly global relationships of culture, people and economic activity. Most often, it refers to economics: the global distribution of the production of goods and services, through reduction of barriers to international trade such as tariffs, export fees, and import...

. Globalization refers to the interaction and integration of people, products, cultures and governments between various nations around the globe; this is fostered by trade

Trade

Trade is the transfer of ownership of goods and services from one person or entity to another. Trade is sometimes loosely called commerce or financial transaction or barter. A network that allows trade is called a market. The original form of trade was barter, the direct exchange of goods and...

, investment

Investment

Investment has different meanings in finance and economics. Finance investment is putting money into something with the expectation of gain, that upon thorough analysis, has a high degree of security for the principal amount, as well as security of return, within an expected period of time...

, and information technology

Information technology

Information technology is the acquisition, processing, storage and dissemination of vocal, pictorial, textual and numerical information by a microelectronics-based combination of computing and telecommunications...

. Globalization affected women's rights and the gender hierarchy in China, in aspects of domestic life such as marriage and primogeniture

Primogeniture

Primogeniture is the right, by law or custom, of the firstborn to inherit the entire estate, to the exclusion of younger siblings . Historically, the term implied male primogeniture, to the exclusion of females...

, as well as in the workplace. These changes altered the quality of life and the availability of opportunities to women at different junctures throughout the modern globalization process.

The dynamics of gender inequity are correlated with the ideological principles held by the ruling political regime. The imperial era (221-206 BCE) was dominated by the social paradigm of Confucianism

Confucianism

Confucianism is a Chinese ethical and philosophical system developed from the teachings of the Chinese philosopher Confucius . Confucianism originated as an "ethical-sociopolitical teaching" during the Spring and Autumn Period, but later developed metaphysical and cosmological elements in the Han...

, which was a pervasive philosophy throughout the Orient

Orient

The Orient means "the East." It is a traditional designation for anything that belongs to the Eastern world or the Far East, in relation to Europe. In English it is a metonym that means various parts of Asia.- Derivation :...

. Confucian ideals emphasized morality

Morality

Morality is the differentiation among intentions, decisions, and actions between those that are good and bad . A moral code is a system of morality and a moral is any one practice or teaching within a moral code...

, character, social relationship, and the status quo

Status quo

Statu quo, a commonly used form of the original Latin "statu quo" – literally "the state in which" – is a Latin term meaning the current or existing state of affairs. To maintain the status quo is to keep the things the way they presently are...

. Confucius preached jen (humanity) and the equality and educability of all people; Neo-Confucianists and Imperial leaders used his beliefs in social hierarchy, particularly in the family setting, for the physical and social oppression of women. As the Chinese government began to re-assimilate themselves into the global community in the late 19th to early 20th century, it shifted away from conventional Confucian ideals and women’s role in society changed as well. After Mao Zedong

Mao Zedong

Mao Zedong, also transliterated as Mao Tse-tung , and commonly referred to as Chairman Mao , was a Chinese Communist revolutionary, guerrilla warfare strategist, Marxist political philosopher, and leader of the Chinese Revolution...

established the People’s Republic of China in 1949, a change in traditional gender roles came about. Mao’s death marked the beginning of the current communist

Communism

Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...

administration and an influx of international communications in the areas of commerce, politics and social ideals. Since the 1980s, under the new communist party, the women’s rights movement has gained momentum and has become a national issue and a sign of modernization

Modernization

In the social sciences, modernization or modernisation refers to a model of an evolutionary transition from a 'pre-modern' or 'traditional' to a 'modern' society. The teleology of modernization is described in social evolutionism theories, existing as a template that has been generally followed by...

In rural areas, women traditionally work alongside their family to produce crops like tea and rice. In urban areas, women work in factories, living away from home. Most of these factory workers are young girls that send their income to their families. To help maintain the rights of women in factories, labor unions and organizations were built. In their homes, women take care of their children and cook.

Western bias

Western scholarship has historically used ideas of subordinance

Hierarchy

A hierarchy is an arrangement of items in which the items are represented as being "above," "below," or "at the same level as" one another...

and victimization

Victimology

Victimology is the scientific study of victimization, including the relationships between victims and offenders, the interactions between victims and the criminal justice system — that is, the police and courts, and corrections officials — and the connections between victims and other social groups...

to characterize traditional Chinese womanhood. These beliefs were largely constructed on the basis of ideological

Ideology

An ideology is a set of ideas that constitutes one's goals, expectations, and actions. An ideology can be thought of as a comprehensive vision, as a way of looking at things , as in common sense and several philosophical tendencies , or a set of ideas proposed by the dominant class of a society to...

and political agenda

Political agenda

A political agenda is a set of issues and policies laid out by an executive or cabinet in government that tries to influence current and near-future political news and debate....

s, and were widely accepted despite their ethnocentrism

Ethnocentrism

Ethnocentrism is the tendency to believe that one's ethnic or cultural group is centrally important, and that all other groups are measured in relation to one's own. The ethnocentric individual will judge other groups relative to his or her own particular ethnic group or culture, especially with...

. Early European writings pertaining to Chinese women were produced by missionaries

Missionary

A missionary is a member of a religious group sent into an area to do evangelism or ministries of service, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care and economic development. The word "mission" originates from 1598 when the Jesuits sent members abroad, derived from the Latin...

and ethnologists

Ethnology

Ethnology is the branch of anthropology that compares and analyzes the origins, distribution, technology, religion, language, and social structure of the ethnic, racial, and/or national divisions of humanity.-Scientific discipline:Compared to ethnography, the study of single groups through direct...

at the conclusion of the 19th century. The goal of the missionaries was to “civilize China,” and highlighting weakness and victimization provided for the continuance of their work. This belief prompted scholars to use female subordination as a means to validate Western ideas about Chinese culture and Confucian principles.

In the 1970s, as the feminist movement

Feminist movement

The feminist movement refers to a series of campaigns for reforms on issues such as reproductive rights, domestic violence, maternity leave, equal pay, women's suffrage, sexual harassment and sexual violence...

s were forming, they began to impact the literature surrounding women in China. Studies on Chinese women from this period were concerned with women’s liberation, and were sympathetic to the feminist movement. This sentiment largely influenced the topics and methodology of the research. With this shift in perspective, the focus of discourse remained on subordination, patriarchal oppression

Patriarch

Originally a patriarch was a man who exercised autocratic authority as a pater familias over an extended family. The system of such rule of families by senior males is called patriarchy. This is a Greek word, a compound of πατριά , "lineage, descent", esp...

, and victimization. These studies examined such issues as foot binding and the chastity

Chastity

Chastity refers to the sexual behavior of a man or woman acceptable to the moral standards and guidelines of a culture, civilization, or religion....

of widows. Literature formulated by feminist writers did nothing to dispel the myth of the weak, subservient woman. These works provided a new bias that had not before been articulated. Feminists believed that Chinese women were a part of a “universally subordinated womanhood". This line of thinking illustrates the cultural superiority inherently felt by Western women. Writings on Chinese woman rarely account for differences in time, ethnicity, class

Social class

Social classes are economic or cultural arrangements of groups in society. Class is an essential object of analysis for sociologists, political scientists, economists, anthropologists and social historians. In the social sciences, social class is often discussed in terms of 'social stratification'...

, region or age, preferring to describe the status of women as a static, unitary fixture of Chinese culture, despite the political and geographic boundaries that defined different regions and the economic and social changes that occurred throughout history.

Traditional roles and Confucianism

From the Han Dynasty

Han Dynasty

The Han Dynasty was the second imperial dynasty of China, preceded by the Qin Dynasty and succeeded by the Three Kingdoms . It was founded by the rebel leader Liu Bang, known posthumously as Emperor Gaozu of Han. It was briefly interrupted by the Xin Dynasty of the former regent Wang Mang...

(206 BC-220 CE) until the modern period (1840–1919), scholars and rulers developed a male-dominated patriarchal society in China. Confucianism was at the root of the development of the patriarchal society in China, and emphasized the distinctions between the sexes and the roles they have within the family. These ideologies continued through the Tang dynasty

Tang Dynasty

The Tang Dynasty was an imperial dynasty of China preceded by the Sui Dynasty and followed by the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period. It was founded by the Li family, who seized power during the decline and collapse of the Sui Empire...

(618-907), and girls were taught from a very young age to be submissive to their fathers, then to their husbands, and later to their sons. During the Song Dynasty

Song Dynasty

The Song Dynasty was a ruling dynasty in China between 960 and 1279; it succeeded the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period, and was followed by the Yuan Dynasty. It was the first government in world history to issue banknotes or paper money, and the first Chinese government to establish a...

(960-1297), Confucian scholars further developed the patriarchal tradition with more restrictions for females, including foot binding for girls at a very young age.

Married life

The traditional Chinese marriage system is organized by the parents of the groom and bride in order to obtain alliances between the two families to ensure the continuance of the family line. There were three types of marriages that emerged in the late Chou Dynasty (951-960). In these three marriages, the Chinese woman's main function was to produce children. The first marriage was called a capture marriage, in which the groom would go to his prospective bride's house at dusk to "kidnap" her. The second type of marriage was called a purchase marriage, in which women were paid for by their husbands. Once women were purchased, they became their husband's possession and could be traded or sold. The third type of marriage was the arranged marriage, which was accomplished by a matchmaker who acted as a go-between for both families. If there was not a matchmaker, the marriage could be deemed unacceptable and the husband had the right to dissolve the marriage. The married woman's role at home depended upon the social rank of her spouse, but the prime mission of married women, regardless of their social status, was to bear a son in order to carry on the family name. In addition, a married woman was to be obedient to her in-laws as if they were her own parents.

The marriage law of 1950

New Marriage Law

The New Marriage Law was a civil marriage law passed in the People's Republic of China on May 1, 1950. It was a radical change from existing patriarchal Chinese marriage traditions, and needed constant support from propaganda campaigns...

was issued after the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949. It declared the abolition of the feudal marriage system characterized by arranged and forced marriage

Forced marriage

Forced marriage is a term used to describe a marriage in which one or both of the parties is married without his or her consent or against his or her will...

, male superiority, and the disregard for the interests of children. This law also asserted the rights of adults to divorce

Divorce

Divorce is the final termination of a marital union, canceling the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage and dissolving the bonds of matrimony between the parties...

, which embraced the free-choice marriage, and helped transfer power from the older to the younger generations.

May Fourth Movement

The "New Culture" movement

New Culture Movement

The New Culture Movement of the mid 1910s and 1920s sprang from the disillusionment with traditional Chinese culture following the failure of the Chinese Republic, founded in 1912 to address China’s problems. Scholars like Chen Duxiu, Cai Yuanpei, Li Dazhao, Lu Xun, Zhou Zuoren, and Hu Shi, had...

began in China around 1916 following the unsuccessful activities of the 1911 Revolution to establish a republican government, and continued through the 1920s. The May Fourth Movement

May Fourth Movement

The May Fourth Movement was an anti-imperialist, cultural, and political movement growing out of student demonstrations in Beijing on May 4, 1919, protesting the Chinese government's weak response to the Treaty of Versailles, especially the Shandong Problem...

, which took place on May 4, 1919, was a demonstration led by students at the National Peking University against the government, in which they protested the abolition of Confucianism and changes in the traditional value system. Many believed that the solution to China's problems would be to adopt Western notions of equality and democracy

Democracy

Democracy is generally defined as a form of government in which all adult citizens have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives. Ideally, this includes equal participation in the proposal, development and passage of legislation into law...

. Since the movement stressed group efforts and propaganda

Propaganda

Propaganda is a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position so as to benefit oneself or one's group....

, women were involved in numerous collective tasks such as publication, drama production, and fund raising, which helped them gain more social contact with men and win respect.

Foot binding

Foot binding was the custom of binding the feet of young girls painfully tight to prevent further growth. The practice probably originated among court dancers in the early Song dynasty, but spread to upper class families and eventually became common among all classes. The tiny narrow feet were...

is the process in which the arch of a woman's feet is broken and the toes are wrapped up against the foot to create a smaller looking foot with an acute arch. These "fists of flesh" were seen as attractive and arousing for men and the practice was passed down as a prerequisite to marriage from mother to daughter across generation

Generation

Generation , also known as procreation in biological sciences, is the act of producing offspring....

s. Special shoes

Lotus shoes

Lotus shoes are footwear that were worn by women in China who had bound feet. The shoes are cone or sheath-shaped, intended to resemble a lotus bud. They were delicately constructed from cotton or silk, and small enough to fit in the palm of a hand. Some designs had heels or wedge-shaped soles...

were made to accentuate the small size of the women's feet. This process was painful and often confined women to their rooms. Few lower class women were able to have their feet bound because they needed to be able to walk normally to accomplish house work. Bound feet came to be an indication of high class

Upper class

In social science, the "upper class" is the group of people at the top of a social hierarchy. Members of an upper class may have great power over the allocation of resources and governmental policy in their area.- Historical meaning :...

and wealth for women. The practice has been outlawed multiple times since its inception in the 13th century. It was finally banned as the Communists came to power around 1949.

Trafficking of women

Women are sold through gangs of women traffickers

Human trafficking

Human trafficking is the illegal trade of human beings for the purposes of reproductive slavery, commercial sexual exploitation, forced labor, or a modern-day form of slavery...

who kidnap and transport young women and girls across large distances from their homes. Their papers and documentation

Documentation

Documentation is a term used in several different ways. Generally, documentation refers to the process of providing evidence.Modules of Documentation are Helpful...

are taken from them. These women are purchased by men who bar them from leaving the home for fear of the women escaping. Some of these women feel a sense of duty to the family once they have committed to them and had children. They also have no means of escape. This practice has been banned by the government since Mao Zedong

Mao Zedong

and the Communists came to power. Men who buy wives are subject to time in jail, and those convicted for trafficking women face execution.

Confucianism and Communism

Under Confucianism the typical family was patriarchal

Patriarchy

Patriarchy is a social system in which the role of the male as the primary authority figure is central to social organization, and where fathers hold authority over women, children, and property. It implies the institutions of male rule and privilege, and entails female subordination...

because men have the capability to pass on the family name and carry on the lineage

Lineage

Lineage may refer to:- Science :* Lineage or kinship, descent group that can demonstrate their common descent from an apical ancestor or a direct line of decent from an ancestor....

of the ancestors; women were expected to be subservient. As the Communist regime changed the structure of Chinese society through economic reform, the structure of the Chinese family was altered. "The Four Olds" (sijiu) - old ideas, old habits, old customs, old cultures - were discouraged and were replaced by Communist ideology particularly during the Cultural Revolution. The economy was shifted to total government control with few chances to own private property and communal property. Collectivization destroyed "clan-based" systems and had a great effect on motivation of workers and family loyalties.

The traditional social structure was further degraded by the Cultural Revolution

Cultural Revolution

The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, commonly known as the Cultural Revolution , was a socio-political movement that took place in the People's Republic of China from 1966 through 1976...

. The Red Guards

Red Guards (China)

Red Guards were a mass movement of civilians, mostly students and other young people in the People's Republic of China , who were mobilized by Mao Zedong in 1966 and 1967, during the Cultural Revolution.-Origins:...

turned members of a family against one another as they sought out "class enemies" to be sent for "re-education," ultimately resulting in a loss of family ties. Women were elevated to equal status as men through a series of laws which prohibited practices such as arranged marriages, concubinage

Concubinage

Concubinage is the state of a woman or man in an ongoing, usually matrimonially oriented, relationship with somebody to whom they cannot be married, often because of a difference in social status or economic condition.-Concubinage:...

s, dowries

Dowry

A dowry is the money, goods, or estate that a woman brings forth to the marriage. It contrasts with bride price, which is paid to the bride's parents, and dower, which is property settled on the bride herself by the groom at the time of marriage. The same culture may simultaneously practice both...

, and child betrothals

Child marriage

Child marriage and child betrothal customs occur in various times and places, whereby children are given in matrimony - before marriageable age as defined by the commentator and often before puberty. Today such customs are fairly widespread in parts of Africa, Asia, Oceania and South America: in...

. Under these marriage laws, women enjoyed joint property in marriage and could file for a divorce.

As a result of Communist rule in China, the social status of women improved greatly. Women were empowered to work outside the home. Communist rule also brought about the end of practices such as foot binding, child marriages, prostitution

Prostitution

Prostitution is the act or practice of providing sexual services to another person in return for payment. The person who receives payment for sexual services is called a prostitute and the person who receives such services is known by a multitude of terms, including a "john". Prostitution is one of...

, and arranged marriage

Arranged marriage

An arranged marriage is a practice in which someone other than the couple getting married makes the selection of the persons to be wed, meanwhile curtailing or avoiding the process of courtship. Such marriages had deep roots in royal and aristocratic families around the world...

s. China has seen a decrease in domestic violence

Domestic violence

Domestic violence, also known as domestic abuse, spousal abuse, battering, family violence, and intimate partner violence , is broadly defined as a pattern of abusive behaviors by one or both partners in an intimate relationship such as marriage, dating, family, or cohabitation...

due to government-supported grassroots programs to counter these practices. Women in rural areas remain largely uneducated.

Population control

During the reform period, the Communist regime in China regulated birth control

Birth control

Birth control is an umbrella term for several techniques and methods used to prevent fertilization or to interrupt pregnancy at various stages. Birth control techniques and methods include contraception , contragestion and abortion...

. The party legalized abortion

Abortion

Abortion is defined as the termination of pregnancy by the removal or expulsion from the uterus of a fetus or embryo prior to viability. An abortion can occur spontaneously, in which case it is usually called a miscarriage, or it can be purposely induced...

in 1953 and then created public birth control study groups in 1954. There was a push for a limit on childbirth in 1956, which had no immediate effect on the population, but the one child policy was implemented in 1979 and is in effect today.

Another instance of population control is the prevalence of female infanticide. Due to the one child policy, families want their one child to be a son rather than a daughter. Since the 1980s, roughly 200,000 female infants have been killed per year due to the preference for male children and an advancement in technologies such as ultrasound

Ultrasound

Ultrasound is cyclic sound pressure with a frequency greater than the upper limit of human hearing. Ultrasound is thus not separated from "normal" sound based on differences in physical properties, only the fact that humans cannot hear it. Although this limit varies from person to person, it is...

, which help to determine the sex of the fetus. In addition to female infanticide, girls are unregistered or are abandoned by their families, which excludes them from receiving government-offered legal benefits and education. These methods of population control have resulted in a huge gender gap in China.

History of working women

In the imperial era, women were prohibited from having official positions. It was unimaginable for women to hold these positions because during this time women underwent foot bindings, which prevented them from doing any sorts of physical labor. They held jobs that required very minimal physical activity like domestic chores and producing textiles to sell or use.

During Mao's rule (1949–1976), Chinese women were needed for their manual labor for farming and for urban industrialization. To compensate for their hard work, they were provided access to education and politics. The Chinese government supported women's education. The percentage of girls attending school was 96.2% compared to below 20% before the People's Republic

People's Republic of China

China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...

(1949). The Chinese government has tried to decrease the amount of women illiterates while promoting adult and vocational schools. The amount of illiterates has gone down from 90% in 1949 and 32% from 1993. In the first 30 years of Communist rule women's discrimination was decreasing, but they did not have jobs that had real decision-making power.

Now in the present day, there are more employed Chinese women. They receive the same amount of money for the same amount of work that they do. The Chinese government has made great efforts to achieve a high level of economic status for women. Since 1949, with the founding of the People' Republic, the rate for employed women has risen. Chinese women account for 44% of the work force and 34.5% account for the women's work force in the world.

Rural areas

The key role women have in farming is to maintain ownership of the main sources of production in rural areas. In traditional China. women were not allowed to own land. Land was inherited through the sons, and if there was no son in the family, it was taken by a close male relative. In less populated areas, women do more agricultural work than men because of shifting cultivation

Shifting cultivation

Shifting cultivation is an agricultural system in which plots of land are cultivated temporarily, then abandoned. This system often involves clearing of a piece of land followed by several years of wood harvesting or farming, until the soil loses fertility...

. In more populated areas, men do more work than women because extensive plough cultivation

Plough

The plough or plow is a tool used in farming for initial cultivation of soil in preparation for sowing seed or planting. It has been a basic instrument for most of recorded history, and represents one of the major advances in agriculture...

is used. During the busy periods of planting, transporting, and harvesting, women are brought onto the field to work rather than working in the house. Female involvement is high in the double-cropping

Multiple cropping

In agriculture, multiple cropping is the practice of growing two or more crops in the same space during a single growing season. It is a form of polyculture. It can take the form of double-cropping, in which a second crop is planted after the first has been harvested, or relay cropping, in which...

rice area. Women also play a role in tea cultivation. Other types of work women perform in the countryside include pig and poultry rearing, spinning

Spinning (textiles)

Spinning is a major industry. It is part of the textile manufacturing process where three types of fibre are converted into yarn, then fabric, then textiles. The textiles are then fabricated into clothes or other artifacts. There are three industrial processes available to spin yarn, and a...

, weaving

Weaving

Weaving is a method of fabric production in which two distinct sets of yarns or threads are interlaced at right angles to form a fabric or cloth. The other methods are knitting, lace making and felting. The longitudinal threads are called the warp and the lateral threads are the weft or filling...

, basket-making

Basket weaving

Basket weaving is the process of weaving unspun vegetable fibres into a basket or other similar form. People and artists who weave baskets are called basketmakers and basket weavers.Basketry is made from a variety of fibrous or pliable materials•anything that will bend and form a shape...

, and other handicrafts. This type of work supplements agricultural income.

Urban areas

China's economic policies laid the basis of the industrialization drive in export-oriented development, and its reliance on low-wage manufacturing

Manufacturing

Manufacturing is the use of machines, tools and labor to produce goods for use or sale. The term may refer to a range of human activity, from handicraft to high tech, but is most commonly applied to industrial production, in which raw materials are transformed into finished goods on a large scale...

to produce consumer goods for the world market. Young migrant women left their homes in rural settings to work in urban industrial areas. Work included export-oriented industrialization

Export-oriented industrialization

Export-oriented Industrialization sometimes called export substitution industrialization or export led industrialization is a trade and economic policy aiming to speed up the industrialization process of a country by exporting goods for which the nation has a comparative advantage...

, manufacturing in electronics and toy assembly, sewing in garment production, and mixed assembly and sewing in the footwear industry. Hong Kong

Hong Kong

Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...

and Shenzhen

Shenzhen

Shenzhen is a major city in the south of Southern China's Guangdong Province, situated immediately north of Hong Kong. The area became China's first—and one of the most successful—Special Economic Zones...

were cities established as centers of export-oriented industrialization, and migrant women workers have made up 70% of Shenzhen's three million people.

Private sector employers are reluctant to hire women because Chinese law requires that the employer cover maternity leave and childbirth costs.

Reasons for migrant labor

A recent phenomenon, the migration of rural Chinese workers began in 1984 when the Regulations of Permanent Residence Registration became less punitive and allowed people to move to find employment. People left rural areas to escape poverty, and females left due to the lack of local opportunities for women. In the cities, women could find new, low-paid factory-based jobs that did not require highly skilled workers. According to national statistics, the ratio of male to female migrant workers averages 2:1, and an estimated 30-40 million of the migrant women work in the cities, namely Hong Kong and Shenzhen.

In 2003, 70% of the 5.5 million migrant workers were females in the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone

Shenzhen Special Economic Zone

Shenzhen Special Economic Zone , established in May 1980, is the first special economic zone in the People's Republic of China...

. In the Nanshan district of Shenzhen, females comprised 80% of the workforce with the average age of 23. Young female workers are preferred over older females or males for several reasons. First, as married women are less mobile, female migrant workers are younger and more likely to be single than their male counterparts. Young rural women are preferred for these jobs primarily because they are less likely to get pregnant, and are able and willing to withstand longer working hours, have “nimble fingers, and will be less experienced in asking for their statuatory rights. In many cases, migrant women sign contracts stating that they will not get pregnant within their period of employment.”

In the interest of the family, rural females are sent to find urban employment over male counterparts, mainly to supplement familial income at home and to support the males, who are more likely to attend college. The male standard of education in China is higher; particularly when a family is under financial stress, females are more likely to drop out of school to generate income for the family. Because females have lesser impact on the family’s long term financial stability, their rights for opportunities development are consequently unequal.

This new system allowed rural residents to migrate, it did not allow them to change their residence or accept any benefits in the cities. This resulted in a growing population of migrant laborers without the minimal benefits of residency including medical care, housing, or education. Many migrants, particularly less educated, younger women are unaware of their rights. Today, up to 90% of migrants work without contracts, in violation of the Chinese labour law.

Degradation

Women factory workers are known as "dagongmei" (working girls). They are traditionally young women migrants who experience a segmented labor market in informal and low-wage employment sectors. Workers in export-oriented factories receive minimum wage

Minimum wage

A minimum wage is the lowest hourly, daily or monthly remuneration that employers may legally pay to workers. Equivalently, it is the lowest wage at which workers may sell their labour. Although minimum wage laws are in effect in a great many jurisdictions, there are differences of opinion about...

and minimum overtime

Overtime

Overtime is the amount of time someone works beyond normal working hours. Normal hours may be determined in several ways:*by custom ,*by practices of a given trade or profession,*by legislation,...

pay, they pay for meals and lodging at the factory, and they pay fines for breaking factory

Factory

A factory or manufacturing plant is an industrial building where laborers manufacture goods or supervise machines processing one product into another. Most modern factories have large warehouses or warehouse-like facilities that contain heavy equipment used for assembly line production...

rules. The average daily wage, for a 12-hour day in a toy factory, in the mid-1990s was $1.10 USD for migrant women workers in Shenzhen.

These conditions create "maximum surplus

Economic surplus

In mainstream economics, economic surplus refers to two related quantities. Consumer surplus or consumers' surplus is the monetary gain obtained by consumers because they are able to purchase a product for a price that is less than the highest price that they would be willing to pay...

appropriation"; workers' daily lives revolve around factory production and are dependent on the regional economy. The state disallows local unionization and has the All-China Federation of Trade Unions

All-China Federation of Trade Unions

The All-China Federation of Trade Unions , is the sole national trade union federation of the People's Republic of China. It is the largest trade union in the world with 134 million members in 1,713,000 primary trade union organizations...

(ACFTU) as the legitimate forum of worker representation. Without the right to form unions and with the state sanctioned ACFTU, migrant women workers find it hard to effectively gain suitable rights and treatment from the factory management. The 2003 statistics from the People's University show 90% of migrants work without contacts, directly violating the Chinese Labour Law. According to the ACFTU, migrant workers are owed over 100 billion Yuan in back wages.

Organizations are now attempting to assist and empower female migrant workers through training and education on their labor-related rights. Legal clinics have begun to assist female migrants in filing claims against employers and local labor bureaus. One case of female worker exploitation in the Hua Yi garment factory in Beijing

Beijing

Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...

resulted in mistreatment by management as well as withholding pay for at least 24 women. After filing complaints, in collaboration with the Center for Women's Law Studies and Legal Services of Beijing University, the women received 170,000 Yuan in back wages and compensation.

Relations between workers and employers represent both the immediate need of manufacturing plants for large quantities of low wage laborers, and the insecurities young workers face in relocating long distances to life in factory dormitories. Hiring single young women serve needs of management

Management

Management in all business and organizational activities is the act of getting people together to accomplish desired goals and objectives using available resources efficiently and effectively...

. The employment of young females allow management to exhibit maximum control and authority over the labor force

Labor force

In economics, a labor force or labour force is a region's combined civilian workforce, including both the employed and unemployed.Normally, the labor force of a country consists of everyone of working age In economics, a labor force or labour force is a region's combined civilian workforce,...

. Compared to older women and male workers, young single women are susceptible to the authority and demands of management. The common manipulation of "factory as family" by owners and managers suggests how workers hold a subliminal status within the factory environment. Uneven power relations inside the factory result in demands from management for personal services from women workers, from hair washing to sex.

Western bias

Traditional roles and Confucianism

Married life

May Fourth Movement

Foot binding

Trafficking of women

Confucianism and Communism

Population control

History of working women

Rural areas

Urban areas

Reasons for migrant labor

Degradation

See also