"Men Are More Able": Rural Chinese Women's Conceptions of Gender and Agency

W A rRITING ABOUT THE LIVES OF WOMEN IN CHINA moved some years ago from accounts of extraordinary successes to troubled accounts of a revolution postponed or unfinished.' The consensus at present is one which acknowledges changes for the better as well as persistent and contemporary structural obstacles to change. A major focus of discussion is the mixed effect of a succession of official policies and political movements. As the limits of these have become increasingly apparent, there has been a partial shift in attention toward examining the importance of a familially-based patriarchy.2 This direction has been encouraged by the rural reform programme of the 1980s, which has dissolved most of the country's rural collective structures and instituted a new rural economic system in which the household has an increased role. This reform programme was instituted for broad economic and political reasons and has not included policies specifically designed to address the interests of women.3 There is consequently much concern, both within and beyond China, about the present and future lives of rural Chinese women.