From Family Unit To Individual Unit: A Study Of Rural Gender Development In The Background Of Marketization

In the past time of Chinese countryside, family usually was seen as a unit. The rights, status, or resources of each family members were not devided in a clear way. In the process fo marketization, the individualization of gender has become more and more obviouse for demand of their self-development,ways of emlopyment, social life and ways of social production. Those factors have changed the basic unit of Chinese countryside from a family to individual one. However, this situation conflicts with the family-based governance pattern, and leads to several issues about lacking of adaptability and precision of current rural policies. In addition, it has a negative impact on gender equality. The purpose of this study is to examine the new characteristics of gender relationship in Chinese countryside and to provide new governmance suggestions which can promote better development of both man and woman. A case study of a village in northern Hebei provience was used to obtain major data for this research.The study has found that:First, the logic of gender divison has changed. The traditional gender division is based on the gender differences, and families are treated as the basic units. However, the process of marketization turns the way of labor division from gender-oriented to market-oriented. Under the environment of the marketization, the basic unit of market division is individual which is especially good for woman since the process of marketization provides them more working opportunities. Moreover, the logic of labor division has gradually shifted away from gender difference to fulfill the market requirements based on factors such as human resources. It has both positive and negative impacts. On one hand, the living quality and income of both genders increased. The limits and boundaries of traditional style of labor division became blur, and it encouraged more and more woman to participate in social productions.However, on the other hand, the concern, recognition and protection of women's rights still need to improve. Nowadays, the women in Chinese countryside have to face several problems, suhc as their low-educated background, lack of professional skills, and the absence of speaking right. In contrast, the males in the Chinese countryside have more human and material resources than women. The inequality between genders still need to be focused on.Second, both genders in the Chinese countryside struggle for their rights. In general, the gender relationship has changed significantly, and the current situation of gender equlity becomes much better than in the past. The right and status of women have improved a lot. However,it doesn't mean that the traditional inequality of rights and status between genders is replaced. It still has a significant impact on the family members. The current policies do not distinguish the rights, resources and status of each gender. It has negative impact on women. Thus, the rights and status of both genders in the Chinese countryside now are unclear. It is a changing process which has both positive and negative impacts on women and men.Third,the concenption of gender is shaped by another way. Both new and previous conceptions have influences on people. The process of marketization does not only change the economy system and rules,but also brings the market ideology into farmers' daily life. It has strengthened the individual consciousness of people which is especially good for women. The emergence of neolocal residence, the increasing cost of raising children and the stronger support of families have improved the gender equality. In addition, the patriarchal culture has been weaken by these new situations. While we should also pay attention to the issues, such as some people return to support the traditional gender culture which is not good for the development of gender equality. We can find such examples from W village.The people in the village show different attitudes when they are at home and in public, since even they have recognicze that they should treat men and women the same, they are afraid to be disagreed by public opinions.According to the whole study, I suggest that if we want to achieve the goal of gender equality and guarantee the equal development of genders, we should change our style of governance. We should add the idea of gender mainstreaming to the goverance. The gender mainstreaming in governance is a high-level strategy that can guide all of the policies, regulations and rules. It is necessary to recognize the trend of individualization in current society, and shift the unit of governance from family to individual. To achieve this goal, we have to do four things which are listed below: First, we should understand the role of man and woman as the participants and beneficiaries in the governance process.Second, the higher level of governments should divide their power to the lower level of governments to deal with different real situations in different area. Third, we should reduce the gender blindness moieties in the exisiting policies, and encourage governments to build more and more gender sensitive policies. Fourth,to guarantee the efficiency of governance,we should establish and improve a gender assessment system when setting policies.