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SOSC 102U

Lecture Note 12

Economic restructuring, gender relationship, and the family

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Topics

Topic 1. How does gender relationship in a household associate with family strategies to respond to economic restructuring?

– Strategies of Hong Kong working-class families to respond to economic restructuring (Vivien Leung in Chow, Ch. 8)

Topic 2. How does the increasing job opportunities in Hong Kong-Canton border change the family patterns?

– Cross-border marriages/polygyny between Hong Kong men and mainland Chinese women (Graeme Lang and Josephine Smart’s research—link to the paper)

Topic 3. Inter-provincial marriage migration in China

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Impacts of economic restructuring on Hong Kong working-class families

The change of employment status for manufacturing workers: unemployed, downgrading working contracts (from permanent/long-term employment to short term contract workers), wage cut

From 1985 to 1996, the labor force in the manufacturing sector decreased by two-thirds (or an absolute number of 550,000)

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Two competing approaches

Family strategy to respond to economic restructuring How men and women in a household respond to the

changing economic conditions? Who should be responsible for the domestic work? Who should be the primary breadwinner? Who should sacrifice more?

Two competing approaches to examine the issue: – New Home Economies: family as a unitary, monolithic entity; its

individual members share a common interest in maximizing the welfare of the family as a whole

– Feminist approach: the above approach ignores power imbalances, diverse interests, negotiations, and conflict in the decision-making process of a household

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Gender relationship and family strategies

Power and conflicts are involved in the making of family strategies

Gender relationship in a household matter to family strategies

Two kinds of gender relationship in a household – A. A traditional household: roles of husband and wife were

rigidly split between breadwinner and caretaker (husband-centric decision-making process)

– B. A flexible household: negotiations between the couple were common when deciding the allocation of labor and family finances even before restructuring

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Family strategies in a traditional household (1)

The principal rule of family strategies in a traditional household: to re-organize all household resources and labor to fulfill the husband’s employment needs– use family savings to finance the retraining of men– the husband’s preferences for employment are given

primacy and not affected by the family’s finance (If the husband is reluctant to switch from manufacturing to better-paid service jobs, the wife would work extra hours to support the decision)

– the male-dominated re-allocation of the household budget

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Family strategies in a traditional household (2)

If the husband could sustain the family with his own income, his wife would exit from the labor market

– If the wife switched to service job, it would demand a stricter schedule and longer hours. The wife could not take care of the domestic work

In these traditional households, even when the wife’s contribution to household income was equal to the husband’s, her wages were regarded as the family’s rather than her own personal money. In contrast, the husband would preserve his personal money

– An example was that a wife would cut her personal expenses or even daily necessities to reserve more money for her children

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Family strategies in flexible households (1)

More negotiations in the re-allocation of labor and the redistribution of household finance were involved in the formation of family strategies

The need for negotiation:– For women switched from manufacturing work to service

jobs, their financial contribution to the family could not be secured (women’s service jobs were always unstable and short-term)

– The demand of service jobs might be unreasonable (such as to wear a tight dress and to tolerate customers’ sexual harassment)

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Family strategies in flexible households (2)

The division of labor or other domestic re-arrangements were organized around the needs of the wife’s employment

Men were more willing to than those from traditional households to take up unfavorable service jobs

Both women and men had equal responsibilities and control over the household finance

But the insecurity of service jobs also made some women to exit from the labor market and to become full-time housewives

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Family strategies: to examine why did men and women respond differently to economic restructuring

Human capital theory: women’s orientation to their families inhibits their investment in education, training, and experience and thus make women less productive than men

Gender relationship in a household

Economic restructuring: industrial relocation from Hong Kong to mainland China, Hong Kong’s transforming into a service center

Employment Opportunities/Constraints: the decline of manufacturing sector and the rise of service sector

Theories on gender inequality at workplace

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Topic 2: Cross-border marriages

When Hong Kong companies heavily involved in industrial activity in Guangdong, a large number of Hong Kong managers, technicians, and supervisors regularly cross the border to work in Guangdong

In 1995, 122,300 Hong Kong residents had worked in China during the previous twelve months. 86% were men between 30-49 years of age

They stay across the border from a few days to a month during each visit

Many of these men found young and single women across the border to be their “second wives”

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Different forms of marriages:

– Monogamy: the practice or condition of having only one spouse at a time

– Polygamy: a spouse of either sex may have more than one mate at the same time

Polyandry: the state or practice of having more than one husband or male mate at one time

Polygyny: the state or practice of having more than one wife or female mate at one time

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Who are these women?

Most migrant factory workers in Guangdong are young and single women from rural areas

What motivated them to work in the factory away from home?

To become economic independence; to experience life; to continue education, if possible

Many female factory workers view marriage in industrializing zones as an alternative route to better life chances and as a way to escape agricultural labor and rural poverty and to avoid arranged marriages in the countryside

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Could their dreams come true?

Men working in factories near large municipalities are not likely to marry them. Only a very small portion of factory women workers end up marrying a male workers in the city (these women from rural areas mostly registered as rural status in the hukou system)

Their options and prospects in the industrializing region are very limited– No spare time to upgrade their education

qualifications

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Alternative ways to stay in coastal areas

Forming a special connection with a manager or supervisor is especially tempting for migrant women workers who face return to a village after the end of their employment contracts—becoming the mistress of a factory manager is one route to greater material security

These relationships may develop into long-term and durable commitments—the revival of polygyny through migration

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Cross-border marriages/polygyny

Why would they choose to become “second wives”? Marriage is a strategy to maximize security and

optimize life options within the constraints and opportunities of a particular social milieu

A woman may have a much better life and more resources for raising children as the second wife of a rich man than as the first wife of a poor man

--Wages of ordinary workers in Hong Kong were five to ten time higher for the same occupations in mainland China (survey in the mid-1990s, Guldin 1995)

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Topic 3: Inter-provincial marriage migration

Patterns of marriage migration: from the poorer areas of the southwest (Sichuan, Guizhou, Guangxi, and Yunnan) to travel to the rural areas of the richer sections of the eastern coast (Jiangsu, Hubei, Guangdong, Shandong, Anhui, and Zhejiang)

In Zhejiang in the 1980s, more than 100,000 women migrated for the purpose of marriage

When did they come? Most of them came after the 1980s

In 1989, in every 51 households in Zhejiang, there was one female marriage migrant

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Destination of inter-provincial marriage migration

Original provinces

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Changing perspectives on women’s migration

An explanation: the female labor migrants helped to stimulate marriage migrations

How? the customary constraints against any type of unmarried female workers began to weaken in the rural areas

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How do these single women conduct the long-distance migration?

Do they come by themselves, showing in a distant rural village as strangers and try to look for possible husband candidates?

No. Most female marriage migrants utilize family or hometown connections to find a husband in an unfamiliar community

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How do the men in coastal areas find their wives from afar?

Men often make their own arrangements and bring or arrange for the new wife to be brought back

– Poor men go to remote areas and encourage the parents of a prospective wife to accompany her to the new locality so they can see with their own eyes what type of place she will be living in

– In a more “modern” way, a man would place an advertisement in a magazine, newspaper, or internet

– Looking for foreign wives: Taiwan example

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Inter-provincial marriage migration (6)

Why were women from the southwest willing to travel all the way to find a husband?

“To find a better husband”--what constitutes a “better husband”?

– Better than what these girls would end up marrying if they stay in their home villages

– Better economic conditions

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Inter-provincial marriage migration (7)

Who are the husbands of the immigrant brides?

Those whose average wages are about the average or lower than the average wage of men in coastal areas

Rural women who were working in factories near large municipalities were difficult to find local men willing to marry them. Only a small percentage were successful

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Inter-provincial marriage migration (8)

Why would some men in coastal China choose to marry the women coming from afar?

They are more affordable: the bride price paid for immigrant women is usually significantly less than what is required for a local bride – E. g. in Zhejiang, to marry a local woman may

cost 10,000 Yuan, but it only costs 300 to 3,000 Yuan if marry an immigrant woman