Abstract
The economic reform since the late 1970s has brought about fundamental changes in many aspects of Chinese cotton textile workers’ employment relations in the state sector, such as the pattern of hiring and firing, labour organisation and control of production, and the mechanism of wage/bonus distribution on the shopfloor (Zhao and Nichols, 1996). But one aspect of workers’ employment appears static: the sexual division of labour in shopfloor production. Seemingly engulfed by the white water of labour reform, a quiet pool remains, harbouring the traditional division of labour between men and women in the cotton mills. Workers’ tasks are clearly gendered, almost exactly as they were early in the century, when modern cotton mills were newly established in China.
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© 1999 Zhao Minghua
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Minghua, Z. (1999). From Weaving Stars to Bitter Flowers: Tradition, Reform and their Implications for Women Textile Workers. In: West, J., Minghua, Z., Xiangqun, C., Yuan, C. (eds) Women of China. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780333983843_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780333983843_6
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