Livelihood Resilience Perception: Gender Equalisation of Resettlers from Rural Reservoirs—Empirical Evidence from China

Abstract

Hydropower engineering has brought unprecedented benefits to the world while causing massive displacement of people. Since the implementation of the Post-Relocation Support (PReS) policy for reservoir resettlers in China in 2006, the distribution of perceived livelihood resilience by gender of resettlers has gradually become more equal. Based on data from a survey of rural reservoir resettlers’ livelihoods in nine regions of Guizhou Province, China, this data examines the distribution of resettlers’ perceived livelihood resilience across genders using logit regression and then explores the contribution to gender equality. The empirical results show that, unlike previous studies, household economic conditions do not bring about more gender differences in perceived livelihood resilience among resettlers (gender contribution ratio = 1.12). Gender differences in perceived livelihood resilience among resettlers were influenced by household workforce levels (e.g., gender contribution ratio = 1.23 at high workforce levels), education level (e.g., contribution ratio = 1.87 in primary education), and resettlement methods (e.g., contribution ratio = 4.53 at external resettlement). The implementation of the PReS policy also contributes to the gender equality of these resettlers’ perceived livelihood resilience. For rural resettlers in different regions with different livelihoods, resettlement patterns, capital, and gender differences of resettlers should be understood through different livelihood resilience perspectives. Improving capacity building of resettlers’ livelihoods resilience through site-specific, participatory development and resource interoperability to promote high quality, sustainable and simultaneous development in resettlement areas and reservoirs.