Hukou, Land Tenure Rights, and Chinese Rural Women
Hukou, Land Tenure Rights, and Chinese Rural Women

Author(s): Pia Eskelinen
Subject(s): Sociology
Published by: Univerzita Palackého v Olomouci
Keywords: land rights; rural women; China; hukou; household registration system; women’s rights;
Summary/Abstract: Land is a powerful asset, and it has a social function as its economic and social aspects are central in advancing gender equality. Legal control of land as well as the legal and social recognition of women’s uses of and rights to land, can provide catalytic effects of empowerment, increasing women’s influence and status in their homes and communities. The main aim of this article is to investigate and analyze the difficulties rural women face in land tenure rights when changing their hukou, which is the household registration system. During past decades, changes in the practices of the Chinese hukou legislation and land tenure rights have brought important incentives for rural developments, including farmer income and living standards. Even though both men and women face difficulties in rural areas due to the hukou system and its clashes with land rights, women are more vulnerable and more at risk of facing poverty and abuse. Women remain more likely to become landless after changing their hukou. The lack of recognition for women’s land-use rights deprives them of their chances of surviving in rural China. They become legal ghosts.

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