A Study On The Role Dilemma And Adjustment Of Rural Married Women Supporting Parents

Outgoing married women refer to married women of rural age who marry and work and live outside their village,as well as married women who marry into their village from other places.As a social phenomenon,unmarried women supporting their parents play an important role in the elderly care of rural families.In the traditional concept of rural society,unmarried women,as "splashed water" and "outsiders" temporarily placed in their parents’ homes,are generally not given the same maintenance responsibilities as their sons,and are only given higher maintenance obligations when their parents have no children or their sons pass away.However,in modern society,the enhancement of gender equality awareness and the migration of male labor force have gradually enabled married women to participate in the elderly care activities of their parents and play an important role in their parents’ elderly care affairs,being endowed with the same maintenance obligations as their sons.In the actual process of support,the role dilemma of an unmarried woman is prominent and urgently needs to be solved,as she has already married out,lives far away from the village,and does not live with her parents.Taking T Village in Hunan Province as the research site,this paper focuses on the role dilemma of married women’s participation in supporting their parents by using field research and case analysis,combined with gender theory and role theory.The study found that married women are occasional economic providers,temporary caregivers,online emotional comforters and anonymous funeral funders of their parents.In the process of supporting their parents,there are three major role dilemmas: Role conflict,role ambiguity and role distance: Role conflict dilemmas are the deviation between "name" and "reality",and the imbalance between "family people" and "social people";The dilemma of role ambiguity manifests as the ambiguity of the cognition of the supporting subject,the ambiguity of the understanding of the supporting obligation,and the ambiguity of the cognition of the supporting behavior;The dilemma of role distance is represented by the distance between the replacement and the formal maintenance and between the occasional supply of resources and the fixed supply of resources.The main reasons for the role dilemma faced by married women supporting their parents are: the practical obstacles of spatial distance,the limitations of the "husband living" model,and the psychological pressure of "guest living";The cognitive differences between parents towards their children’s elderly care,the separation of "name" and "reality" in elderly care responsibilities,the reduction of "single inheritance" in their willingness to support,and the bias towards "elderly care" and "filial piety";The public opinion pressure of local customs,the soft constraints of village public opinion,and the lack of support for elderly care in villages;The constraints of traditional family support methods,the gender division of traditional family care models,and the impact of outdated feudal ideologies.Based on the analysis of the above role dilemmas and causes,it is proposed to adjust the role of unmarried women in supporting their parents: enhancing their own support ability,encouraging them to actively seek employment,enhancing their economic strength,and enhancing their professional ability in elderly care;Create a harmonious and healthy family elderly care atmosphere,encourage married women to support their parents,and cultivate their awareness of active elderly care;Give full play to the binding role of village customs,protect the legitimate rights and interests of married women,implement their property inheritance rights,and guide villagers to change their traditional elderly care concepts;Build a new type of elderly care culture with gender equality,enhance the social recognition of daughter elderly care,and play the exemplary and leading role of daughter elderly care.Married women participate in the elderly care activities of their parents as substitutes and helpers,playing an increasingly important role in the new type of family elderly care.Daughter elderly care is showing a normalized development trend in many regions.How to adjust the role of rural married women in supporting their parents,alleviate the pressure of rural family elderly care,meet the high-quality elderly care needs of the elderly,and actively respond to the challenges of population aging,This is the main question that this article focuses on.