Land management in rural China and its gender implications
- 1 July 2007
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Taylor & Francis in Feminist Economics
- Vol. 13 (3-4) , 35-61
- https://doi.org/10.1080/13545700701445298
Abstract
Women are an important mainstay of agricultural production in China, though their access to land is characterized by even greater ambiguity than that of their male counterparts. As part of its path toward liberalization, China undertook agricultural land management policy reforms that were aimed at increasing the security of land tenure rights, but these reforms have paradoxically exacerbated the uncertainty surrounding women's claims to land. Utilizing sample survey data collected from 412 rural households in Shaanxi and Hunan provinces in 2002, this paper documents and analyzes gender differences in land allocations. The findings of this study shed light on the degree to which community characteristics coupled with current local practices (such as frequency of reallocation) influence gender disparities. Results suggest that a growing number of women experience loss of contract land coincident with marrying, and this trend may be expected to increase given the current direction of land policy.Keywords
This publication has 14 references indexed in Scilit:
- Gender and rural reforms in China: A case study of population control and land rights policies in northern LiaoningFeminist Economics, 2007
- Will China's WTO accession worsen farm household incomes?China Economic Review, 2004
- Gender, Household Headship and Entitlements to Land: New Vulnerabilities . in Vietnam's DecollectivizationGender, Technology and Development, 2003
- The Gender Asset Gap: Land in Latin AmericaWorld Development, 2003
- Land Rights in Rural China: Facts, Fictions and IssuesThe China Journal, 2002
- Leaving China's Farms: Survey Results of New Paths and Remaining Hurdles to Rural MigrationThe China Quarterly, 1999
- What difference does gender make? Rethinking peasant studiesFeminist Economics, 1995
- Gender and command over property: A critical gap in economic analysis and policy in South AsiaWorld Development, 1994
- The Evolution of Agricultural PolicyThe China Quarterly, 1988
- Agricultural Organization: New Forms, New ContradictionsThe China Quarterly, 1988