Introduction to special colloquium on women and institutional change in rural China

Abstract

This is an introduction to the special section of articles that analyze the gendered modalities of policy and institutional change in rural China and examine how women are engaging with, and affected by, those changes. In two consecutive issues, eight articles examine changes in policies and institutions relating to rural development, village-level politics and property rights, marriage migration and urbanization. Through their individual case studies, the contributors elucidate how gender is integral to the conceptualization and implementation of policy and institutional changes in rural China; how those changes are altering the status, rights, resources, goals and arenas of action of different categories of rural women, thereby reinforcing or altering gendered constructs; and, finally, how women's actions are triggering further policy and institutional changes. Show more