Volume 49 - Article 14 | Pages 355–384  

Moving towards gender equality in China: The influence of migration experiences on rural migrants’ gender role attitudes

By Chao Yuan, Dong Zhang

Abstract

Background: Family, schooling, and culture influence attitudes towards gender roles, which life experiences further reinforce. Cross-regional migration is an important life experience that can reshape gender role attitudes. However, little is known about how host-city cultures influence migrant workers’ gender role attitudes and the influencing mechanisms.

Objective: This study investigates the impact of migration experiences on rural migrants’ gender role attitudes, revealing the influencing mechanisms of urban culture.

Methods: The augmented inverse probability weighting method is utilised to develop a model of migration’s influence on gender role attitudes. Data are sourced from the 2015 Chinese General Social Survey, conducted with 4,791 rural migrant workers (aged 16–65 years).

Results: Rural–urban migrants become more accepting of gender equality after migration, although this trend is stronger in the labour market than in the domestic domain. Further, analysing the moderating effect of provincial gender culture and differences on rural migrants’ gender role attitudes shows that workers who migrate from more gender-conservative places become more accepting of gender equality after leaving and that women are more strongly influenced by gender equality in urban areas than are men.

Contribution: The study provides further insight into cultural impacts on migrants’ values and how such impacts are differentialised regarding gender, the work–family sphere, and regional culture. This impact is mostly limited to the performance of the rural migrant population in the labour market and does not fully penetrate into this population’s family life.

Author's Affiliation

• Chao Yuan - Xi'an International Studies University , China EMAIL
• Dong Zhang - Chongqing Technology and Business University, China EMAIL

Most recent similar articles in Demographic Research

Between money and intimacy: Brideprice, marriage, and women’s position in contemporary China
Volume 50 - Article 46    | Keywords: brideprice, China, divorce, family, family law, gender inequalities, marriage

Are highly educated partners really more gender egalitarian? A couple-level analysis of social class differentials in attitudes and behaviors
Volume 50 - Article 34    | Keywords: attitudes, couple analysis, education, educational level, gender, gender roles, housework, social class differentials

Marital plans and partnership transitions among German opposite-sex couples: Couple agreement and gender differences
Volume 49 - Article 39    | Keywords: gender roles, German Family Panel pairfam (Panel Analysis of Intimate Relationships and Family Dynamics), marital intentions, relationship dissolution, transition to marriage

Changing mind, changing plans? Instability of individual gender attitudes and postponement of marriage in Germany
Volume 47 - Article 25    | Keywords: childbearing, family formation, gender attitudes, marriage, multidimensional attitudes

Culture portability from origin to destination country: The gender division of domestic work among migrants in Italy
Volume 47 - Article 20    | Keywords: childcare, culture, epidemiology, gender, housework, migration