The Impact of Circular Migration on the Position of Married Women in Rural China

This study examines the impact of migration on women's positions in Chinese rural households. A number of studies have found that rural Chinese migrant women experience more autonomy and freedom in urban areas than they would at home. But do these experiences carry over into marriage when they return to rural areas? Using a survey of more than 3,000 married, rural women in Anhui and Sichuan provinces and controlling for potential endogeneity of migration and return, this paper explores four main categories of women's status: women's views on male/female relationships, women's roles in household decision making, women's relationships with their husbands, and women's views concerning parents and children. It concludes that for women from Anhui and Sichuan, migration has some statistically significant lasting effects on a woman's position in the household, though the effects are not always positive, nor are they universal.