Migrant Women and the Distribution of their Income in Hubei Province, China

• Main Authors: Milena Janiec-Grygo, Pratyusha Basu
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Université des Sciences et Technologies de Lille 2009-12-01
• Series: Espace populations sociétés
• Subjects: China; factory workers; gender; Hubei; migration; Wuhan
• Online Access: http://journals.openedition.org/eps/3794

While contributions made by China’s women workers to the global economy have been emphasized in many studies, it is also important to understand the meanings of such work to women themselves. One approach is to trace the ways in which women distribute their wages between their own needs and the needs of their family. This article focuses on migrant women working in textile factories in the city of Wuhan, Hubei Province, in order to examine how women’s wages are distributed between personal spending and contributions to natal and marital homes, and how such distributions vary between single and married women. It thus provides a basis for understanding possible transformations in traditional gender relations given the increasing economic value of women’s work. This examination of women’s income disposal also draws attention to spatial flows of income in contemporary China, since migrant women are poised not just between marital and natal homes, but also between urban and rural homes. More broadly, this research aims to inform theories of migration through an interlinked understanding of economic and social aspects of gendered migration processes and experiences in China