Bargaining with patriarchy: returned dagongmei's (factory girls') gendered spaces in neoliberalizing China's hinterland

• Published in: Gender, place and culture : a journal of feminist geography Vol. 28; no. 12; pp. 1673 - 1694
• Main Author: Yuchen, Han
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Abingdon Routledge 02.12.2021; Taylor & Francis Ltd
• Subjects: Bargaining; Bargaining with patriarchy; Chinese dagongmei (factory girls); Coastal areas; Factories; Gendered space; Girls; Hegemony; industrial relocation; Industry; Intersectionality; Local government; Locality; Market forces; Neoliberalism; Patriarchy; Relocation; return migration; Rural communities; Women; China
• ISSN: 0966-369X; 1360-0524
• DOI: 10.1080/0966369X.2020.1825213

This ethnographic paper documents the gendered spaces created by China's returned dagongmei (factory girls) in the context of industrial relocation from coastal regions to neoliberalizing hinterlands. It finds that these rural women's locality selection decisions for industrial work, either in the new local industrial park, or in their own upstart living-room factories, help them bargain with patriarchy upon their return. By utilizing market forces and entrepreneurial mindsets in the relocated industrial sectors prioritized by local governments, they eventually shift the familial patriarchy. They also penetrate the hegemony of neoliberalism, and strategically align with patriarchal resources when disadvantaged in the capital chain. This study uncovers the simultaneous presence and dynamic interactions of intersectional structural power systems and the women's multiple forms of practices. In doing so, it also documents the Chinese versions of 'bargaining with patriarchy' and neoliberalism.