CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 26China's Socioeconomic Reforms and GovernanceLand Rights and ReformsGender, Labor, and Family Dynamics

The DOI matches its Crossref record.

Why Women Own Less, And Why It Matters More in Rural China’s Urban Transformation

Open access
Sargeson, Sally·2012·China Perspectives
DOI 10.4000/chinaperspectives.6025
Open this paper in CoChat — free accountOpen PDF

Abstract

As the amount of wealth in China’s economy grows, so too does the size of the gender asset gap. Nowhere is this gap more extreme, or its consequences for women’s future wealth, subjectivity, and agency more serious, than in peri-urban sites where the conversion of farmland for development has sent property values skyrocketing. This article explores how the gender asset gap is being reproduced in the course of rural China’s urban transformation. It queries the plausibility of the most common explanations for this gap, and suggests that Charles Tilly’s theory of categorical sources of “durable inequality” offers a useful corrective to those explanations. Drawing on data collected from interviewees and survey respondents in Zhejiang, Fujian, Hunan, and Yunnan provinces between 2004 and 2012 and from secondary sources, the paper illustrates how, when villagers are compensated for the expropriation of their land and demolition of their agricultural and business activities and housing, Village Committees, patrilineal households, and local government authorities utilise gender categories to resolve distributional problems and differentially compensate men. Women become less likely than men to be acknowledged as, and have the capacity to fully act as, the owners, managers, and users of the assets whose value increases as a result of urbanisation.

Overview

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.4000/chinaperspectives.6025

Cites

Statistics

Verification

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Citations

Cites

No references could be resolved yet.

Research works printed but not linked: 45

  1. Ann Varley, "Gender and Property Formalization: Conventional and Alternative Approaches," World Development, Vol. 35, No. 10, 2007, pp. 1739-1735;
  2. Carmen Diana Deere and Cheryl Doss, "The Gender Asset Gap: What Do We know and Why Does It Matter?", Feminist Economics, Vol. 12, No. 1, 2006, pp. 1-50;
  3. Bina Agarwal, "Gender and Command over Property: A Critical Gap in Eco- nomic Analysis and Policy in South Asia," World Development,Vol. 22, No. 10, 1994, pp. 1455-78.
  4. See, for example, the gap between male and female responses in Li Liao, Nuonan Huang, and Rui Yao, "Family finances in urban China," Journal of Family Economics, Vol. 31, 2010, pp. 259-279.
  5. Zhen Yan (ed.), Zhongguo nongcun funü zhuangkuang diaocha, Beijing, Shehui kexue wenxian chubanshe, 2008.
  6. Charles Tilly, Durable Inequality, Berkeley (CA), University of California Press, 1998;
  7. Charles Tilly, "Changing Forms of Inequality," Sociological Theory, Vol. 21, No. 1, 2003, pp. 31-36.
  8. Methodology is explained in Sally Sargeson and Yu Song, "Land Expropriation and the Gender Pol- itics of Citizenship in the Urban Frontier," The China Journal, Vol. 64, 2010, pp. 19-45;
  9. Sally Sarge- son, "Women's Property, Women's Agency in China's 'New Enclosure Movement': Evidence from Zhejiang," Development and Change, Vol. 39, No. 4, 2008, pp. 641-665;
  10. Sally Sargeson, "Governing Women's Capabilities in China's Urban Expansion," International Feminist Journal of Politics, Vol. 9, No. 2, 2007, pp. 154-175;
  11. Sally Sargeson, "Building for the Future Family," in Anne E. McLaren (ed.), Chinese Women -Working and Living, London, RoutledgeCurzon, 2004, pp. 149-168.
  12. Carmen Diana Deere, Gina E. Alvarado, and Jenifer Twyman, "Gender Inequality in Asset Ownership in Latin America: Female Owners vs Household Heads," Development and Change, Vol. 43, No. 2, 2012, pp. 505-530.
  13. Nicholas Blomley, "Law, Property and the Geography of Violence: The Frontier, the Survey and the Grid," Annals of the Association of American Geographers, Vol. 93, No. 1, pp. 121-141.
  14. Greg M. Olsen, Power and Inequality: A Comparative Introduction, Don Mills (Ontario), Oxford University Press Canada, 2011.
  15. Yingying Zhou, Hua Han, and Stevan Harrell, "From Labor to Capital: Intra-Village Inequality in Rural China, 1988-2006," China Quarterly, Vol. 195, 2008, pp. 515-534.
  16. Thomas A. Peltonen, Ricardo M. Sousa, and Isabel S. Vansteenkiste, "Wealth effects in emerging market economies," International Review of Economics and Finance, Vol. 24, 2012, pp. 155-166.
  17. Chunyan Zheng, "Lun lihun anjian zhong nongcun funü quanyi de baohu" (Theorizing the protec- tion of rural women's rights in divorce cases), Zhongwai qiyejia (Chinese and Foreign Entrepre- neurs), No. 6, 2011, pp. 160-162.
  18. Xiajuan Guo, Yongnian Zheng, and Yang Li, "Women's Participation in Village Autonomy in China: Evidence from Zhejiang," China Quarterly, No. 197, 2009, pp. 145-164;
  19. Lin Tan (ed.), 1995-2005 nian: Zhongguo xingbie pingdeng yu funü fazhan baogao (1995-2005: report on gender equality and women's development in China), Beijing, Shehui kexue wenxian chubanshe, 2006, pp. 52-64.
  20. Jude Howell, "Women's political participation in China: In whose interests elections?", Journal of Contemporary China, Vol. 15, No. 49, 2006, pp. 603-620;
  21. Xiaohong Liu and Zhiping Wu, "Funü zai cunweihui xuanju zhong de jingxuan celüe yanjiu" (Research on women's campaigning strategy when participating in village elections), Funü yanjiu luncong (Collection of women's studies), No. 1, 2008, pp. 15-20.
  22. Zhen Yan (ed.), Zhongguo nongcun funü zhuangkuang diaocha (Survey on the situation of China's rural women), op. cit.;
  23. Yong Zhang, "Nongcun funü canyu cunweihui xuanju de xianzhuang jiqi yingxiang yinsu" (The current situation and factors influencing rural women's participation in vil- lage elections), Shehui (Society), No. 6, 2004, pp. 26-29.
  24. Sally Sargeson and Yu Song, "Land Expropriation and the Gender Politics of Citizenship in the Urban Frontier," The China Journal, no. 64, July 2010.
  25. Ellen Judd, "No change for thirty years: The renewed question of women's land rights in rural China," Development and Change, Vol. 38, No. 4, 2007, pp. 689-710.
  26. Junjie Chen and Gail Summerfield, "Gender and Rural Reforms in China: A Case Study of Population Control and Land Rights in Northern Liaoning," Feminist Economics,Vol. 13, No. 3-4, 2007, pp. 63- 92; Hainan gaige fazhan yanjiusuo (Hainan Research Center for Reform and Development), Zhong- guo nongcun funü tudi quanli diaoyan baogao (Report on research into rural women's land rights in China), presented at international symposium on protection of rural women's land rights and new breakthroughs in rural reform, Haikou, 20-22 January 2003.
  27. Xiaoyun Li et al., "Gender Inequality and Poverty in Asset Ownership," Chinese Sociology and An- thropology, Vol. 40, No. 4, 2008, pp. 49-63.
  28. Quanguo Fulian (All-China Women Federation), "Di san ci Zhongguo funü shehui diwei diaocha zhuyao shuju baogao" (Report on the main results from the third survey on Chinese women's sta- tus), Funü yanjiu luncong (Collection of women's studies), Vol. 6, No. 108, 2011, p. 12.
  29. Lin Tan and Bohong Liu (eds.), Zhongguo funü yanjiu shi nian (10 year review of Chinese women's studies), Beijing, Shehui kexue wenxian chubanshe, 2005, pp. 683-691.
  30. H. Ray Liaw, "Women's land rights in China: Transforming existing laws into a source of property rights," Pacific Rim Law and Policy Journal, Vol. 17, No. 1, 2008, pp. 237-264.
  31. Zhangbao Zhong and Jinhua Di, "Tudi liuzhuan zhong funü de diwei yu quanyi" (Women's status and rights in land circulation), in Lin Tan and Bohong Liu (eds.), Zhongguo funü yanjiu shi nian, Beijing, op.cit., pp. 424-432.
  32. Xiaoyun Li et al., "Gender and Poverty in China: Qualitative Analysis," in China: Research Report on Gender Gaps and Poverty Reduction, Beijing, World Bank, 2006, pp. 147-266.
  33. Jingxin Wang, "Zhongguo nongcun funü tudi quanyi " (Chinese rural women's land rights), Zhongguo nongcun jingji (China's rural economy), No. 6, 2003, pp. 25-31.
  34. Virilocal marriage involves the bride's movement to the groom's place of residence. See Zhenglin Guo, "Nongcun funü de tudi quanli yu zhengce baozhang" (Rural women's land rights and pro- tective policies), in Lin Tan (ed.), 1995-2005 nian: Zhongguo xingbie pingdeng yu funü fazhan baogao (1995-2005: report on gender equality and women's development in China), Beijing, She- hui kexue wenxian chubanshe, 2006, pp. 149-159.
  35. Johan Fabian, Time and the Other: How Anthropology Makes its Object, New York, Columbia Uni- versity Press, 1983.
  36. Philip N. Cohen and Wang Feng, "Market and Gender Pay Equity: Have Chinese Reforms Narrowed the Gap?", in Deborah S. Davis and Feng Wang (eds.), Creating Wealth and Poverty in Postsocialist China, Stanford, Stanford University Press, 2009, pp. 37-53.
  37. Ping Xu, "Hunying liudong yu nongcun funü de tudi shiyong quanyi," in Lin Tan and Bohong Liu (eds.), Zhongguo funü yanjiu shi nian, Beijing, Shehui kexue wenxian chubanshe, 2005, pp. 683- 691.
  38. One exception is Wang Feng, Boundaries and Categories: Rising Inequality in Post-Socialist China, Stanford (CA), Stanford University Press, 2008. c h i n a p e r s p e c t i v e s • N o . 2 0 1 2 / 4
  39. Charles Tilly, Durable Inequality, op. cit., pp. 7-8. 47. Ibid, p. 80.
  40. Charles Tilly, "Changing Forms of Inequality," art. cit., p. 34, 49. See also Arne Sorenson, "The structural basis of social inequality," American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 101, 1996, pp. 1333-65.
  41. Elizabeth Clemens and James Cook, "Politics and Institutionalism: Explaining Durability and Change," Annual Review of Sociology, Vol. 25, 1999, pp. 441-66;
  42. Stephen Bell, "Do we really need a new 'constructivist institutionalism' to explain institutional change?", British Journal of Political Science, Vol. 41, 2011, pp. 883-906.
  43. Fiona Mackay, Meryl Kenny and Louise Chappell, "New Institutionalism through a Gender Lens: To- wards a Feminist Institutionalism?", International Political Science Review, Vol. 31, No. 5, 2011, p. 579.
  44. Erik Olin Wright, "Metatheoretical Foundations of Charles Tilly's Durable Inequality," Comparative Studies in Society and History, Vol. 42, No. 2, 2000, pp. 458-474.
  45. Qian Forrest Zhang and Zi Pan, "Women's Entry into Self-Employment in Urban China: The Role of Family in Creating Gendered Mobility Patterns," World Development, Vol. 40, No. 6, 2012, pp. 1201-1212.

Cited by

Sorted by citations

See all 26

Metadata

Authors
Sargeson, S.
Affiliations
Australian National University (AU)
Corresponding author
Sargeson, Sally
Venue
China Perspectives
Publisher
OpenEdition
Published
2012
Volume
2012
Issue
4
Pages
35‑42-35‑42
ISSN
  • 1996-4617 (ISSN-L)
  • 2070-3449
DOI
10.4000/chinaperspectives.6025
OpenAlex
W1426844108
Cited by
26
References
0
Citations by year
2026: 1 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 2 · 2020: 4 · 2019: 2 · 2018: 4 · 2017: 2 · 2016: 1 · 2015: 1
FWCI
2.03
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • China Perspectives (publishedVersion)
  • ANU Open Research (Australian National University) (submittedVersion)
  • OpenEdition (OpenEdition) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Political Science and International Relations › China's Socioeconomic Reforms and Governance
  • Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Soil Science › Land Rights and Reforms
  • Social Sciences › Gender Studies › Gender, Labor, and Family Dynamics
Keywords
women's property ownership, rural-urban transition, peri-urban areas, land expropriation, property rights, durable inequality, Charles Tilly, village committees, gender inequality, compensation distribution, urbanization, rural China

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review

How to cite

Cite CoChat for the checks on this page, and the paper for its own findings.

This page
CoChat. (2026). Citation check: Why Women Own Less, And Why It Matters More in Rural China’s Urban Transformation. https://app.cochat.ai/papers/10.4000/chinaperspectives.6025
The paper
Sargeson, S. (2012). Why Women Own Less, And Why It Matters More in Rural China’s Urban Transformation. China Perspectives. https://doi.org/10.4000/chinaperspectives.6025