THEME: Miao and Dong women's role and status varies by type of household.

The Wuling mountain area, where the Guizhou and Human provinces meet, is one of the poorest and most isolated regions in China. Villages usually have limited infrastructure and services, and people are still very traditional. There are 26 minority groups living here, accounting for as much as 60% of the total population. The dominant groups are the Miao (28%), Tujia (19.4%) and Dong (14%). In 1996 IFAD carried out a study in 11 counties in Guizhou, where the Miao and Dong minorities live. The research focus included the situation and activities of women. The formally recognized social status of Miao and Dong women remains low despite their engagement in important productive and income-generating activities. However, the report also notes some emerging gender equality at the household level, though not at the community level.

In spite of the official granting of power and political status to women (in the fifties), things have changed little because of the traditional belief in male superiority. Few Miao or Dong women go to school. The division of labour is gender based. Miao women's responsibilities include domestic chores, child care, growing vegetables, transplanting rice seedlings, taking care of small livestock and doing embroidery. In spite of their poverty, Miao women traditionally dress well. They put an enormous amount of time and labour into making clothing. Among the Dong, there is also a gender-based division of labour. Male tasks are ploughing the field, cutting and collecting fuel wood, planting, cultivating and representing the household in all contacts with outsiders. Women are in charge of managing the household, the children and the livestock, particularly pigs.

The study divides Miao and Dong households into three categories:

• Male-dominated households. In these more traditional Miao and Dong households, livelihoods are primarily agriculture based. The husband is the head of the household, and women are in a dependent position. Work in agriculture is shared, with men performing the heavier tasks. Women are responsible for domestic/reproductive matters. When women need cash, they ask their husbands or fathers-in-law. The study described male-female relations in these households as "very harmonious".
• Jointly run households. The livelihoods of these households are a mix of agriculture and off-farm employment or income-generating activities. Men often go to towns to work during the slack farming season. Women may do handicrafts or livestock activities. However, it is not uncommon for younger women to go with their husbands to work outside the home, leaving their children with mothers-in-law or other older women. If they commute on a daily basis, their income is often so low that there is little left over by the time they pay the cost of the commute. But in these households, women are more equal partners. Men will normally give some of the money earned to their wives.
• Female-headed households. In these types of household, out-migration and off-farm employment for males (husbands and older sons) is dominant, with agriculture of lesser importance. Men may return home only once every year or two. Women de facto heads therefore assume many of the previously male responsibilities, with a greater role in household management and decision-making.

The study notes that while women are assuming new responsibilities at the household level in the second and third of the above categories, there is no noticeable equivalent in their public role or social status. For instance, a woman will continue to use her husband's name in all external transactions, even when the husband has been absent for years. She will register their property and permanent residence in her husband's name or, if he is dead, under their sons' names. Men are the ones who generally represent the household in meetings and in public contacts (for instance, with county government). In part this is seen as resulting from women's frequent illiteracy. Women are also disadvantaged by their inability to speak "standard Chinese", which is important in public transactions. However, the mobility of men and women is not very dissimilar, and most travel outside the village for work or to visit relatives.

The three types of households among the Miao and Dong minorities in China show the impact of livelihood diversification on household-level decision-making. A shift from agriculture to a mixed livelihood base has increased women's responsibilities and power. But change at the community level is slower.

Adapted from:

He Zhongua and Xi Yuhua. 1996. The Investigation Report of IFAD about Miao and Dong Nationality Autonomous Prefecture in Southeast Guizhou Province, Rome: IFAD.

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