Abstract
Gender shapes the lives of women and men in all societies and this is as true in Dalian today as it is anywhere else. Nevertheless, Dalian women rarely discuss issues of gender and even when specifically asked, often claim that their lives have not been influenced by issues of gender. How do we explain this seeming contradiction? One explanation is that gender inequality does not necessarily seem to be the most salient inequality for all women everywhere at all times (Hershatter 2007). For these women, as we saw in the last chapter, their status first, as rural peasants and then, as rural migrants in the city, may be more important in shaping their lives and their own perspectives. It is not that we need to rank the inequalities in some hierarchical order (Hooks 2000) but rather, recognize that they may become relatively more or less important in different settings or times. Nevertheless, as we will see in this chapter, gender is, indeed important in these women’s lives and has shaped all aspects of their lives, from when they were growing up through marriage and work and into their present family circumstances.
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Notes
- 1.
For a parallel argument about South Korea, see Nelson (2000).
- 2.
It is very possible that the women I spoke to would be reluctant to report certain events or issues to me. I would not expect anyone to tell me about an abortion, abandonment, or killing of a daughter, given both the illegal nature of those actions and how they are sanctioned by the general society. But it is also possible that Dalian women, who, as we will see, have stronger ties to their parents after marriage than do women in some other parts of China, are less likely to see sons as more advantageous than daughters to the same extent as in other parts of China.
- 3.
Zheng Tiantian (2007, 2009) has documented the lives of migrant women who work as hostesses in Dalian city and strategize to resist the label given to them as second class citizens. Her work illustrates another setting where women use an unequal social system and their low status within it to procure resources and higher status; see also Ogasawara (1998) about this process among Japanese Office Ladies.
- 4.
Since the Cultural Revolution’s emphasis on the similarities of women and men, Chinese feminists have been debating these issues of equality and difference and whether promoting gender difference (sometimes as “strategic essentialism” (Spivak 1990)) is the best strategy for promoting gender equality. For more on these debates, see: Zhong (2007), Barlow (1989), Li (1988), Meng Yue and Dai Jinhua (1989), Yang (1999).
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Riley, N.E. (2013). “It’s Just Women’s Lot:” The Role of Gender. In: Gender, Work, and Family in a Chinese Economic Zone. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-5524-6_4
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