Chinese Journal of Sociology ›› 2017, Vol. 37 ›› Issue (4): 32-58.

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An Empirical Study on the Economic Contribution of Women in Modern Rural China

LI Nan, LI Yajing   

  1. Shanghai University of Finance and Economics
  • Online:2017-07-20 Published:2017-07-20
  • Supported by:

    This study was supported by Shanghai Pujiang Project Grant (14PJC042),the Fundamental Research Fund of Shanghai University of Finance and Economics (2015110025) and the Graduate Student Innovation Fund of Shanghai University of Finance and Economics (CXJJ-2014-377).

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Abstract:

Gender equality is always an important topic of concern for social scientists and policy makers,and it is also one of seventeen sustained development goals of the United Nations. However,in the current literature on gender equality,the root of gender equality is still not clear. This paper builds a neo-classical theoretical model about the decision of gender labor input within a small-scale peasant economy to examine regional differences in women's economic contribution for family and its determinants. Our hypothesis is that the different geographic endowment between the north and the south of China determines the difference in economic structure of small-scale peasants living in different regions. As a result,the difference in economic structure of household leads to the difference in the economic contribution of women,and the difference in female labor participation rates between the north and the south of China. This paper uses a household-level dataset surveyed by the Southern Manchurian Railway Company in the 1930s to test this hypothesis,and finds that women play an important role in increasing the land wealth of small-scale peasant households. Households with higher female labor participation rates have more wealth measured by the owned land. When female labor participation rates increase by 1 percent,the land wealth owned by households increases 0.3 percent. At the same time,we also find that there is a great difference in the economic contribution of women to their families between the south and the north of China. Compared to households in the north of China,the women in the south of China played a more important economic role in small-scale peasant economy. When female labor participation rate increases by 1 percent,the land owned by the household increases by 0.2 percent. Even after a set of control variables,including the characteristics of household and village and geographical factors are added in our model,the findings were still strong. In addition,during the process of testing the determinants of regional differences in the economic contribution of women,our findings indicated that the economic structure of small-scale peasants caused by geographical endowment better explains the regional differences in the economic role of women. This paper not only reveals the regional differences in the economic contribution of women in modern rural China and its geographic determinants,but also enriches the current literature on gender equality. In addition,this paper also helps us understand the features of the small-scale peasant in modern China.

Key words: geographic endowment, economic contribution of women, small-scale peasant economy