Work and Family in Urban China

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xv

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2. Introduction

   • Jiping Zuo

   Pages 1-20

3. State-Socialist Era (1949—The 1980s)

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 21-21

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   2. Equalizing Gender and Class

      • Jiping Zuo

      Pages 23-44

   3. Socialist Workers, National Heroines

      • Jiping Zuo

      Pages 45-65

   4. Women’s Triple Burden

      • Jiping Zuo

      Pages 67-76

4. Market-Reform Era (The 1990s—Present)

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 77-77

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   2. Labor Denigration and Work–Family Conflict

      • Jiping Zuo

      Pages 79-95

   3. Women’s Domestic-Role Orientation

      • Jiping Zuo

      Pages 97-117

   4. Diverse Roles, A Common Dilemma

      • Jiping Zuo

      Pages 119-138

   5. A Different Marital Equality

      • Jiping Zuo

      Pages 139-153

5. Conclusion

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 155-155

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   2. Conclusion and Implications

      • Jiping Zuo

      Pages 157-181

6. Back Matter

   Pages 183-215

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This book examines a three-way interaction among market, state, and family in China’s recent market reform. It depicts transformations in urban women’s experiences with both paid and non-paid domestic work. The book challenges China’s free-market approach and demonstrates its negative impacts on women’s work and family experiences by revealing labor commodification processes and work-to-family conflicts as the state abandons its commitment to public welfare. Using interview data collected from 165 women of three different cohorts in urban China during the 2000-2008 period, this study uncovers the revival of traditional gendered family roles among urban women and men as one of their strategies to resist market brutality and their struggles to balance work and family demands. The book also explores urban women’s non-market definitions of marital equality, and highlights theoretical and policy implications concerning market efficiency, marital equality, and the state’s role in protectingpublic good.

• women
• China
• urban
• work
• family
• gender
• labor
• market reform
• Mao
• marital inequality

• St. Cloud State University , Saint Cloud, USA

  Jiping Zuo

Jiping Zuo is Professor of Sociology at St. Cloud State University, USA. Her research interests are in social construction of family roles, marital inequality, and state-family relations in contemporary China. Her recent publications can be found in Journal of Marriage and Family, Journal of Family Issues, Rural Sociology, Critical Sociology, and Science & Society.

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