Abstract
Women have been discussed in all the preceding chapters of this book. We have looked at sex ratios among migrants, at the effects of migration on the relatives of migrants, often female, left behind in the sending areas, and at the sexual divisions in the labour market for migrants in the destination areas and the lives of female migrants. This chapter will focus on women, returning to some of the gender-specific aspects of migration already touched on in earlier chapters and taking up others such as female autonomy, fertility, motherhood and prostitution. Marriage migration, that is a move undertaken in order to join a spouse in another area, is the subject of a separate chapter, but this chapter will look at other aspects of the relationship between marriage and migration, such as the way in which the timing and the duration of women’s migration appears to be affected first by the need to find a partner and subsequently by being married.
It’s lonely sometimes in the factory. I miss my family. But I like having money. I send some home to my parents so they are happy. And I can buy clothes and have my hair fixed. I decide about those things for myself. That’s good.
(Young woman worker at Chengdu railway station on her way back to a factory job in Guangdong Province, 1994)
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsPreview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 1999 Delia Davin
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Davin, D. (1999). Women and Migration. In: Internal Migration in Contemporary China. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230376717_8
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230376717_8
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-40373-8
Online ISBN: 978-0-230-37671-7
eBook Packages: Palgrave Social & Cultural Studies CollectionSocial Sciences (R0)