Economic reforms, changing intergenerational transfers, and women's labor in contemporary rural South China

Studies in household research, gender, and economic change increasingly recognize the important role of cultural motives and inter-household transfers in affecting intra-household bargaining and outcomes, including women’s labor allocation. Utilizing ethnographic data collected from rural south China, this article demonstrates that women’s labor allocation is not simply a result of market-oriented economic reforms, but mediated by household goals of familial reproduction and their personal motives in a context of rising consumerism, escalating costs of intergenerational transfers, and changing intergenerational relations. Being active social agents, women deploy their labor not only to fulfill their parental responsibilities and to improve their social position in a changing rural status hierarchy, but to pursue their own interests. Focusing on the rising costs of three major intergenerational transfers, namely housing, wedding expenses, and education, I demonstrate how the impacts of socio-economic change on rural Chinese women vary by their marriage cohorts, rather than being monolithic. Copyright © 2014 Center for Promoting Ideas, USA www.aijssnet.com.