Women of China

CJACKIE WEST is a Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Bristol.ZHAO MINGHUA is a Research Associate in Sociology at the University of Bristol.CHANG XIANGQUN is a Research Officer and PhD candidate in Social Anthropology at the China Research Unit, City University.CHENG YUAN formerly research fellow at the Policy Studies Institute in London.

• List of Tables List of Figures Foreword Preface and Acknowledgements Notes on the Contributors Introduction: State and Economy in the Making of Women's Lives; Zhao.M & J.West PART I: POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC TRANSITIONS State-society Relations and Women's Political Participation; Qi.W Understanding Changes in Women's Status in the Context of Recent Rural Reform; Zhang.H.X. PART II: GENDER, MIGRATION AND LABOUR MARKETS The Role of Women in Labour Migration: a Case Study in Northern China; Song.L Divided Gender, Divided Women: State Policy and the Labour Market; Huang.X From Weaving Stars to Bitter Flowers: Tradition, Reform and Women Textile Workers; Zhao.M PART III: FAMILY AND HOUSEHOLD RELATIONS To Have a Son: the One Child Family Policy and Economic Change in Rural China; Mu.A 'Fat Pigs' and Women's Gifts: Agnatic and Non-agnatic Social Support Relationships in Kaixiangong Village; Chang.X Rural Privatisation and Women's Labour: Property Rights and Gender Concepts in Inner Mongolia and Xinjiang; Zhang.M PART IV: ORGANISING FOR CHANGE Women and the Public Sphere: Education, NGO Affiliation and Political Participation; Shang.X The Development of Women's Studies: from the 1980s to the Present; Mu.D Index

'This collection of work by Chinese scholars makes a valuable contribution to the growing literature on the gendered effects of economic reform processes. It casts new light on the complex and sometimes surprising ways in which gender identities and social relations have been affected by government policies.' - Dr. Maxine Molyneux, University of London 'Women of China is an important collection of the recent work of Chinese scholars. It brings together the voices of a group of women researchers, whose status as observers, participants and scholars of post-Mao China gives them rich and complex perspectives on the subject of their study. Through a multidisciplinary focus on the state and the economy, it explores the losses and the gains, the ambiguities and apparent certainties characterising women's different experiences of economic reform over the past two decades. Scholarly analysis, close attention to empirical detail, and a commitment to examining social and economic reform from a gendered approach combine to make this book a significant and unique addition to the literature of international feminism and Chinese studies.' - Harriet Evans, Centre for the Study of Democracy, University of Westminster