A Probe Into The Family Status Of Rural Women After90s

The family status of women has been an important issue in sociology. Previousstudies on such issue mostly focus on the influences of economic factors. However,the proposed research, based on the investigation into some villages in town Q, InnerMongolia, finds that the women after90s, to some extent, depend on economy, butthey possess high family status, making decisions on important affairs and takingcontrol of financial power. Such paradox cannot be attributed to the cause and effectbetween economic contributions and family status improvement, but to rural socialrealities.The thesis, based on the investigation into some villages in town Q, InnerMongolia, finds that the family status of women after90s is closely related with ruralsocial realities which include the structural imbalance of rural marriage market, thehigh cost of marrying a bride, and the security system of provision for the aged whichoverly depends on family. Whereby, the structural imbalance of rural marriage marketlies in natural causes and social mobility; the high cost of marrying a bride is due tothe development of economy and society, as well as the fact of more men than women;the security system of provision for the aged which overly depends on family isrelated with the imperfect system in rural society. These three social realitiesobjectively results in the family status paradox of women after90s. Apart from theinfluences of social realities in rural areas, changes of rural marriage concepts,especially younger generations’ higher demand of emotion in marriage give rise tothese women’s dominating power of their husbands. As a natural result, they haveextremely high family status.The thesis presents the family status paradox of women after90s in villages,town Q, analyzes the causes, and finally draws the following conclusions. The improvement of these women’s family status is of high passiveness. It is parents’consideration based on sensibility and cost account, plus their worries about youngand older generations as well as the young’s higher demand of emotion in marriagethat results in such phenomenon. Thus, women after90s are supposed to have areasonable cognition of their family status so as to promote the stability and harmonyof family life.