Women’s Land Activism and Gendered Citizenship in the Urbanising Pearl River Delta

Citation:

Po, Lanchih. 2020. “Women’s Land Activism and Gendered Citizenship in the Urbanising Pearl River Delta.” Urban Studies 57 (3): 602–17.

Author: Lanchih Po

Abstract:

 

ENGLISH ABSTRACT:
In light of the unequal access to urban citizenship resulting from the household registration system (hukou), an increasing number of scholarly works have pointed out how a system of citizenship stratification has emerged in urbanising China. However, this stratification has seldom been analysed in terms of gender. Rural women, situated at the bottom of the hierarchy of differentiated citizenship, often suffer gender-based discrimination and tumble still further down the hierarchy. Specifically, women are vulnerable to economic and social dispossession in the process of the displacement of rural populations and renegotiation of land rights. Owing to the custom of patrilocal residence, women who have ‘married out’ (waijianü) have been excluded from rights, participation and entitlement to collective land property. By creating a class of rural female non-citizens, rural communities have deprived waijianü of opportunities to share land-related revenue realised in the process of urbanisation, further perpetuating male dominance just as local economies and society are in flux. Through a case study of these conflicts in Guangdong, this paper explores how women have challenged gendered citizenship in the process of urbanisation.
 
CHINESE ABSTRACT:
摘要
 
鉴于户籍制度（户口）导致的获得城市居民身份方面的机会不平等，越来越多的学术著作指出了居民身份分层制度是如何在中国城市化过程中出现的。然而，学者们很少从性别角度分析这种分层。农村妇女位于不同居民等级的最底层，往往遭受基于性别的歧视，并跌入等级的更低的位置。具体而言，在农村人口驱逐和土地权利重新谈判的过程中，妇女容易遭受经济和社会剥夺。由于从夫居的习俗，已经“出嫁”的妇女（外嫁女)）被排除在集体土地财产随附的权利、参与权和福利之外。通过创造一个农村女性非居民阶层，农村社区剥夺了外嫁女分享城市化进程中实现的土地相关收入的机会，在当地经济和社会不断变化之际进一步延续了男性的支配地位。本文通过对在广东省发生的这类冲突的案例研究，探讨了女性在城市化进程中是如何挑战性别居民身份的。

 

Keywords: agglomeration/urbanisation, citizenship, gender, inequality, poverty/exclusion

Topics: Citizenship, Displacement & Migration, Gender, Women, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Patriarchy, Rights, Land Rights, Property Rights, Women's Rights Regions: Asia, East Asia Countries: China

Year: 2020

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