Impact of rural industrialization on intra-household gender division of labor and welfare

This study focuses on gender-specific changes in labor allocation, bargaining power, and welfare in China's on-going rural industrialization program. The hypothesis is that changes in labor allocation affect the bargaining power of individuals within the household, and the shifts in bargaining power are reflected in changes in certain selected indicators of welfare.;The study focuses on three villages with diverse patterns of industry ownership in Yutian County (Hebei Province).;The nature of women's participation in industry varied significantly by household type and this affected their bargaining power and welfare. Women's participation in industry and management was affected by industry ownership, the type of industrial product, and the scale of the industry. Management was the key factor: simply working in industry did not have a significant impact on women's bargaining power and welfare, but participation in management was associated with increases in bargaining power, and the increased bargaining power was positively correlated with the selected welfare indicators.;Rural industrialization has changed household labor allocation, resulting in a broadening of tasks for both men and women. While women have assumed new tasks in agriculture without relief from old tasks, the reallocation of work between men and women was modest, with more shared tasks and few definitive shifts of tasks from one gender to another.;The study's major conclusions are: (1) Women participate in industry as members of households: simple comparison of men vs. women in isolation provided only limited insights into the changes taking place. Comparing how different groups of women were involved in the changes proved a more productive approach. (2) The nature of the participation matters. Some participation simply results in heavier burdens on women while other participation is empowering. (3) Women's involvement in household-owned enterprises provided more opportunity for them to participate in management than other patterns of industrialization, and conferred greater benefits on them in terms of bargaining power within the household and with respect to other welfare indicators.