The Making of a Modern Self: Vietnamese Women Experiencing Transnational Mobility at the China-Vietnam Border
Autor/in:
Huang, Pengli
Quelle: Social Inclusion, 8 (2020) 2, S 77-85
Inhalt: China-Vietnam marriages attract increasing public attention in China and trigger many discussions on the phenomenon of 'Vietnamese brides.' The discussions are often linked to the rapid modernization of the border areas since the 1990s, caused by the re-opening of the border, the prosperity of the transnational economy and the increase of cross-border mobility between the two countries. Guided by the qualitative research paradigm, 30 Vietnamese women in cross-border intimate relationships with Chinese men were interviewed to examine their motivation and their experience of transnational mobility at the China-Vietnam border. By challenging the popular image of Vietnamese women as pitiable and ignorant country bumpkins in public discourse, this study acknowledges that these women, like other modern women, have the capacity to imagine and desire, to make decisions and to act, caring a lot about self-development and expression. Comparably, these women may not be able to enjoy the relatively rich resources and capital like the economic elites, but they have strategically manipulated multifaceted and contradictory realities at the specific context of the China-Vietnam border to better their economic circumstances, and to reshape their personal, familial, and social relationships.
Agency and Capabilities in Managerial Positions: Hungarian Fathers' Use of Workplace Flexibility
Autor/in:
Geszler, Nikolett
Quelle: Social Inclusion, 8 (2020) 4, S 61-71
Inhalt: This article analyses the agency freedom of manager fathers in Hungary to claim work-family balance through corporate flexible working arrangements. Hobson’s interpretation of Sen’s capability approach (Hobson, Fahlén, & Takács, 2011) is applied to appraise the effect of individual resources and organizational and national context on managers' work-family balance, as well as their influence on organizational culture. An interview-based case study was undertaken at the Hungarian subsidiary of a Scandinavian multinational company, wherein 43 personal interviews were conducted with fathers in managerial positions. The interviews were analysed according to structuring qualitative content analysis. Managers benefitted from corporate flexibility (home office and flexible schedule), but experienced power asymmetries in terms of access to and use of the former according to hierarchy and department. Even though the men in these positions are assumed to be change agents, the majority of them perceived limited agency freedom to convert flexible working into work-family balance, or to influence organizational culture. The privileged position of managers was detected at the level of their individual agency. Most managers could economically afford to maintain a male breadwinner model. Therefore, limitations related to securing parental and flexibility rights were due to traditional gender norms, and the strong sense of entitlement to work. Consequently, the extent and means of use of flexibility did not challenge deeply rooted assumptions about ideal employee norms.
Perceiving and Deflecting Everyday Poverty-Related Shame: Evidence from 35 Female Marriage Migrants in Rural China
Autor/in:
Zhang, Guanli
Quelle: Social Inclusion, 8 (2020) 2, S 123-131
Inhalt: This research examines how poverty is perceived and deflected by a group of female cross-provincial marriage migrants in contemporary rural China. It presents accounts of poverty-related shame in everyday village life. Known as migrant wives, respondents in this research have experienced both absolute and relative poverty over the course of their lives. The personal lament of insufficiency and the social discourse of poverty respectively underpin internal and external poverty-related shame. Correspondingly, migrant wives employ strategies of recounting misery and redefining identity to normalise their poverty and their stigmatised social image, hoping to mitigate the psychological and social impacts of shame. This research contributes an empirical analysis to our understanding about the origin, manifestation, and impact of povertyrelated shame, which is usually a neglected consideration in poverty studies. It also sheds light on the gender-specified risks, burdens, and social expectation that affect migrant wives’ perception and experience of poverty.
SSOAR Kategorie:Familiensoziologie, Sexualsoziologie, Frauen- und Geschlechterforschung, Erhebungstechniken und Analysetechniken der Sozialwissenschaften
Left Behind? Migration Stories of Two Women in Rural China
Autor/in:
Fan, C. Cindy; Chen, Chen
Quelle: Social Inclusion, 8 (2020) 2, S 47-57
Inhalt: Women being left behind in the countryside by husbands who migrate to work has been a common phenomenon in China. On the other hand, over time, rural women’s participation in migration has increased precipitously, many doing so after their children are older, and those of a younger generation tend to start migrant work soon after finishing school. Although these women may no longer be left behind physically, their work, mobility, circularity, and frequency of return continue to be governed by deep-rooted gender ideology that defines their role primarily as caregivers. Through the biographical stories of two rural women in Anhui, this article shows that traditional gender norms persist across generations. Yingyue is of an older generation and provided care to her husband, children, and later grandchildren when she was left behind, when she participated in migration, and when she returned to her village. Shuang is 30 years younger and aspires to urban lifestyle such as living in apartments and using daycare for her young children. Yet, like Yingyue, Shuang’s priority is caregiving. Her decisions, which are in tandem with her parents-in-law, highlight how Chinese families stick together as a safety net. Her desire to earn wages, an activity much constrained by her caregiving responsibility to two young children, illustrates a strong connection between income-generation ability and identity among women of the younger generation. These two stories underscore the importance of examining how women are left behind not only physically but in their access to opportunities such as education and income-generating activity.
Schlagwörter:China; China; ländlicher Raum; rural area; Wanderarbeitnehmer; migrant worker; woman; Betreuung; care; gender-specific factors; Geschlechtsrolle; gender role; Arbeitsteilung; division of labor; soziale Ungleichheit; social inequality; Ostasien; Far East; caregiving; left behind; rural-urban migration
SSOAR Kategorie:Frauen- und Geschlechterforschung, Familiensoziologie, Sexualsoziologie
Mothers Left without a Man: Poverty and Single Parenthood in China
Autor/in:
Li, Qin
Quelle: Social Inclusion, 8 (2020) 2, S 114-122
Inhalt: Most single-parent families in China are headed by women, and single mothers represent one of the fastest-growing groups living in poverty. Yet few studies have examined this group. This article seeks to better understand how (and why) single mothers are disadvantaged in China. Based on in-depth interviews conducted in Zhuhai, Guangzhou Province, it demonstrates that single mothers are left behind in four respects: lower income and worse economic conditions, lower employment and career development opportunities, worse physical and mental health, and poorer interpersonal relationships and less chance of remarriage. The causes of these disadvantages include Chinese family beliefs, a culture of maternal sacrifice, the traditional division of labour between men and women and social stereotypes about single mothers. The article highlights the impacts of Chinese familism culture on single mothers and advocates incorporating a gender perspective into the agenda of family policy and other relevant social policies in China.
Schlagwörter:China; China; allein erziehender Elternteil; single parent; woman; Armut; poverty; Benachteiligung; deprivation; Ungleichheit; inequality; gender-specific factors; kulturelle Faktoren; cultural factors; Tradition; tradition; Mutterschaft; motherhood; Geschlechtsrolle; gender role; Stereotyp; stereotype; Sozialpolitik; social policy; Ostasien; Far East; familism culture; single mothers
SSOAR Kategorie:Frauen- und Geschlechterforschung, Familiensoziologie, Sexualsoziologie
Social Media as a Disguise and an Aid: Disabled Women in the Cyber Workforce in China
Autor/in:
Zheng, Jing; Pei, Yuxin; Gao, Ya
Quelle: Social Inclusion, 8 (2020) 2, S 104-113
Inhalt: Existing literature shows that people living with physical impairment are systematically disadvantaged in the workforce and their voices are often silenced. With a perspective of intersectionality, this article looks into how disabled women suffer from multiple forms of discrimination and how social media may emerge as a tool of empowerment for them in both the workforce and their everyday lives. Drawing on five cases of Chinese disabled women in the cyber workforce, the study finds that the booming Internet economy enables more disabled women to financially support themselves. Social media appears as a cover for these women to disguise their disability identity and get more job opportunities. It serves as an aid in many cases to allow these women to increase social participation, to project their voice, and to form alliances. The risks and challenges that disabled women often encounter in the cyber workforce are also discussed.
Schlagwörter:woman; Behinderung; disability; Erwerbstätigkeit; gainful employment; Benachteiligung; deprivation; Diskriminierung; discrimination; Intersektionalität; intersectionality; Empowerment; empowerment; Soziale Medien; social media; Internet; Internet; Beschäftigungseffekt; effect on employment; berufliche Integration; occupational integration; China; China; Ostasien; Far East; employment; physical impairment; social media; work discrimination; work inclusion
SSOAR Kategorie:Frauen- und Geschlechterforschung, interaktive, elektronische Medien
Long-term care and gender equality: fuzzy-set ideal types of care regimes in Europe
Autor/in:
Bartha, Attila; Zentai, Violetta
Quelle: Social Inclusion, 8 (2020) 4, S 92-102
Inhalt: Recent changes in the organization of long-term care have had controversial effects on gender inequality in Europe. In response to the challenges of ageing populations, almost all countries have adopted reform measures to secure the increasing resource needs for care, to ensure care services by different providers, to regulate the quality of services, and overall to recalibrate the work-life balance for men and women. These reforms are embedded in different family ideals of intergenerational ties and dependencies, divisions of responsibilities between state, market, family, and community actors, and backed by wider societal support to families to care for their elderly and disabled members. This article disentangles the different components of the notion of ‘(de)familialization’ which has become a crucial concept of care scholarship. We use a fuzzy-set ideal type analysis to investigate care policies and work-family reconciliation policies shaping long-term care regimes. We are making steps to reveal aggregate gender equality impacts of intermingling policy dynamics and also to relate the analysis to migrant care work effects. The results are explained in a four-pronged ideal type scheme to which European countries belong. While only Nordic and some West European continental countries are close to the double earner, supported carer ideal type, positive outliers prove that transformative gender relations in care can be construed not only in the richest and most generous welfare countries in Europe.
Schlagwörter:Europa; Europe; Pflege; caregiving; Familie; family; gender; Gleichheit; equality; Migrant; migrant; care regimes; familialization; fuzzy set ideal type analysis; long-term care
SSOAR Kategorie:Gesundheitspolitik, Frauen- und Geschlechterforschung
The transition to parenthood in the French and German speaking parts of Switzerland
Autor/in:
Zimmermann, Regula; LeGoff, Jean-Marie
Quelle: Social Inclusion, 8 (2020) 4, S 35-45
Inhalt: After the first transition to parenthood, most couples adopt a gendered labor division, where mothers become main caregivers and fathers breadwinners of the family. By comparing two distinct language regions within one country, the present article explores how parents’ gendered labor division comes into existence and what role gendered culture and social policy play. The analysis draws on in-depth interviews with 23 German speaking and 73 French speaking participants from Switzerland. The results reveal that French speaking women and men presume an egalitarian labor division as parents. In German speaking regions, however, participants anticipate that mothers will become the main caregivers and fathers the breadwinners. It is shown that the labor market structure, which is in line with the male breadwinner norm, contributes to men's full-time employment, whereas mothers' labor market insertion is influenced by the acceptance of non-parental childcare and to a lesser extent by the offer of childcare facilities. Further, mothers experience more time conflicts than fathers, and the less mothers’ paid work is accepted, the more they suffer from feelings of guilt when being employed.
Schlagwörter:Schweiz; Switzerland; Familienpolitik; family policy; gender; Ungleichheit; inequality; Geschlechterverhältnis; gender relations; Arbeitsteilung; division of labor; Elternschaft; parenthood
SSOAR Kategorie:Familiensoziologie, Sexualsoziologie, Frauen- und Geschlechterforschung
Privileged Daughters? Gendered Mobility among Highly Educated Chinese Female Migrants in the UK
Autor/in:
Tu, Mengwei; Xie, Kailing
Quelle: Social Inclusion, 8 (2020) 2, S 68-76
Inhalt: The one-child generation daughters born to middle-class Chinese parents enjoy the privilege of concentrated family resources and the opportunity for education overseas. We focus on the "privileged daughters" who have studied abroad and remained overseas as professionals. Using three cases of post-student female migrants who were of different ages and at different life stages, we situate their socioeconomic mobility in the context of intergenerational relationships and transnational social space. Drawing on further interview data from the same project we argue that, although the "privileged daughters" have achieved geographical mobility and upward social mobility, through education and a career in a Western country, their life choices remain heavily influenced by their parents in China. Such findings highlight the transnationally transferred gendered burden among the relatively "elite" cohort, thus revealing a more nuanced gendered interpretation of transnational socioeconomic mobility.