I HAVE focused so far on the construction and legitimation of gender divisions of labour in which the majority of rural women are concentrated in the home and on the farm. As has been indicated, relatively few women, compared with men, are employed in non-agricultural work off the farm. Such work is, however, becoming an increasingly important source of employment for women, especially young unmarried women, as the economy develops.

This chapter, then, discusses rural women's work in off-farm non-agricultural employment. The first section discusses the overall development of such employment in the post-Mao era, and the second the gender divisions of labour apparent in this area of work. The third and fourth sections examine the ways in which these gender divisions of labour shape rural women's experience of non-agricultural employment, in urban industries and services, and in rural township enterprises, respectively.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF RURAL OFF-FARM NON-AGRICULTURAL EMPLOYMENT

As mentioned in Chapter 3, moves toward a new rural development strategy made by the CCP at the end of the 1970s included encouragement of greater investment in rural industry. Then, in March 1984 the CCP, in line with the changes in administrative structures that had occurred, renamed commune and brigade enterprises ‘township enterprises’. It also urged local governments to support and encourage the development of township enterprises, including those run privately and by cooperatives.

Meanwhile, a number of other changes were occurring which made a shift to off-farm non-agricultural employment both feasible and attractive to peasants and local governments.