Gendered Pragmatism and Subaltern Masculinity in China

Abstract

Would migration be a transformative process to change gender and masculinity? This study explores the question by putting men at center stage and from their perspectives. The 2010 population census in China estimated that around 220 million people migrated from rural to urban areas. The majority of the earliest cohorts of female migrants in China were either dependents of migrants or their migration trajectory was truncated by family responsibilities. This is consistent with the traditional Chinese gender norm that anchors femininity in wifehood and motherhood. However, there is evidence that an increasing number of married female migrant workers have returned to the city in order to work even after giving birth to their children. This article examines how male migrant workers have gradually accepted their wives’ decision to migrate to the city for work, and hence how the gender norm of the male provider and female homemaker is changing. It also examines how these men reconcile the discrepancy between the new pattern with respect to the gender division of labor and their cherished ideal using a gendered discourse of pragmatism. By locating the intersection between migration and the shift of the male gender identity within the Chinese context, this article speaks to the general literature on gender and migration. It also sheds light on how gender relationships and identity are negotiated within a specific national and cultural context.