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GENDER & POWER IN RURAL NORTH CHINA. By Ellen R Judd. Stanford (California): Stanford University Press. 1994. xiii, 295 pp. US$37.50, cloth. ISBN 0-8047-2295-1.
"THERE is no differentiating feature in Chinese life that is more profound, continuing, and assymetrical than gender." This powerful statement begins the last paragraph of Ellen Judd's tightly argued and soundly based analysis of the position of women during the reform period (1974 present) in rural north China. She states that the primary focus of reform policy has been economic, with no concern for the implications of the changes for rural gender relations. Her analysis is framed in practice theory and is based on her detailed understanding of Chinese history in the revolutionary period, of the contemporary political and economic context from the state to the village level, and of local social organization.
Her primary argument might be summarized as follows. Women are consistently regarded, and regard themselves, as less able than men and behave deferentially around them, but they may make important decisions within their homes. The contrast between this unacknowledged behaviour and the still-popular saying "For a woman to be without ability is a virtue" presents the paradox that underlies the analysis. Outside the household, women face "concentrated patriarchy," which results from...