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3.2 Adult education for woman

Our survey showed that adult education for rural women in the two field locations is mainly conducted through literacy classes and professional training courses.

3.2.1 Literacy classes

In Hengtang, women of the elderly cohort who have participated in literacy classes make up 13.7% of the township's total population of women and 14.3% of its illiterates. In the middle-age cohort the corresponding figures are 8.8% and 55%.

In Jiahong, women of the elderly cohort who have attended literacy class make up 12.5% of the total population of women of the township and 19% of its illiterates. In the middle-age cohort the corresponding figures are 4.2% and 55%.

The majority of women who have received some education in literacy campaigns have by now forgotten most of what they had learned because they do not often read or work. Now they can only read a few characters and figures and can only write their own names. They are in fact semi-literate.

3.2.2 Professional training classes

In Hengtang Township one woman in the elderly cohort had been trained in a stock- and fowl-breeding course, making up 0.8% of the township's total respondents. One woman in the middle age cohort had been trained in a handicraft class, representing 0.8% of the respondents. Four women in the young cohort had participated in handicraft training classes and 10 in industrial training courses, accounting for 10% of the respondents.

In Jiahong Township one woman in the elderly cohort had attended a stock- and fowl-breeding course and one had attended classes for general education and health care, representing 1.6% of the township's total respondents. One woman in the middle age cohort had received training in crop planting, three in stock- and fowl breeding, and three in general education and health care, making up 5.8% of the respondents. Two women in the young cohort had received training in crop planting and 13 in handicrafts, making up 7.5% of the respondents.

The above figures show that the percentage of women participating in professional training is very low. It is slightly higher in the young cohort but is less than 10% of the townships' total respondents. In general, the duration of this kind of training class is short, lasting less than three months, and some last only a few days.

Owing to the limited scope of training programmes in the rural areas, they are not yet very significant to women. The women's views on professional training are as follows:

In Hengtang the elderly women have no desire for training. Among the middle-aged women, 31% hope to attend training classes for farming or cultivating silkworms, 43% have never thought about this question, and 26% are not interested in training because they think they are getting old and burdened with household chores and can no longer concentrate on studying. Among the young women, 48% wish to receive professional training in silk reeling, weaving, sewing, preschool education, bookkeeping, accounting, etc.; 52% are not interested in training, the main reason being that they are satisfied with the status quo in their life and work.

In Jiahong 6.5% of the elderly cohort hope to attend professional training courses, and 33.7% of the middle-age cohort would like to receive some training. In the young cohort, 41.4% of the married women and 66.4% of the unmarried women wish to participate in training classes.

3.2.3 Follow-up education for educated women

Our field survey shows that about two-thirds of the young women and one third of the middle-aged women in Hengtang often read newspapers and magazines in their spare time. The other one-third of young women and two thirds of middle-aged women do little reading.

In Jiahong nearly 60% of the young married women and middle aged women with primary and higher education do not read newspapers any more. Even among the unmarried young women, about one-fourth seldom read any newspapers.

The reading materials that these women are mostly interested in are martial arts stories, detective stories, and love stories. Popular science, agricultural information, and marriage and family life come next. Their main purpose in reading is to beguile time, rather than to learn more.

The tendency to neglect study among educated women is a serious problem that merits attention.

3.3 The impact of economic development on rural women's occupational structure

The founding of New China in 1949 was quickly followed by nationwide land reform. Between the early 1950s, when the cooperative movement started, and the late 1970s, rural women mainly participated in collective agricultural production, and little change took place in their occupational structure. Thus, we put our emphasis on the period of the rural economic reform which began around 1979.

To facilitate analysis, the rural women's occupations are classified as follows:

- agricultural, including crop-planting and stock-raising;
- non-agricultural, including industry, handicraft industry, commerce, service trades, education, and public health;
- housework.

Table 3.7 Changes in rural women's occupational structure since the reform, Hengtang and Jiahong

3.3.1 Changes in occupational structure after 1978

Comparison of the structure of women's occupations in the two field locations in 1986 with that in the pre-1978 period (table 3.7) shows that the relative proportion of women engaged in agricultural work decreased by 24.38%, and the proportion in non-agricultural work in creased by 17.9%. The proportion engaged in housework went up by 6.4%.

Total employment in China in 1988, according to the International Labour Organization (ILO), was 543,340,000, of whom 99,837,000 were in industry; 33,390,000 of the latter were women, as against 29,100,000 in 1985. According to the China Statistical Yearbook of 1989, women workers in agriculture decreased in relative terms from 3.07% to 3.0S% of the total, while they increased in industry from 15.9% to 25.3% in the same period.

The total number of workers in the rural area in 1978, according to the Statistical Yearbook, was 306,038,000 and in 1987 was 414,740,000, of whom 274,880,000 were in actual farming in 1978 and 314,500,000 in 1987. Also, according to the same source, the total employed population in China in 1987 was 584,692,000, of whom 260,222,000 were women. There were 196,671,000 women in agriculture (of the total of 414,740,000) and 37,421,000 in industry (of a total of 90,773,000).

Because of differences between the data from the ILO and those in the China Statistical Yearbook and the lack of a breakdown by gender before 1978, comparison with previous years is not possible. The available data, however, seem to indicate that the samples of the present research lie within a general trend.

Table 3.8 Occupational structure by age cohort, Hengtang and Jiahong, 1986

Table 3.7 shows that, since the reform, part of the surplus female work force in the field locations has shifted to non-agricultural occupations. Several factors have contributed to this change, such as higher agricultural productivity and a more flexible policy toward the development of the non-agricultural economy. All this provided opportunities for rural women to change their occupations, because they were paid less than men and had less of a decision-making role and less responsibility.

The number of women doing housework as their main job has gone up slightly. There are two reasons: First, since the reform, farmers have had more say in arranging production, and so family members can now practice division of labour among themselves instead of doing mandatory collective jobs. Second, the low level of development offers few non-agricultural job opportunities for women to take.*

* See: Status of women: China, RUSHSAP Occasional Paper no. 25 (Bangkok: Unesco Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific, 1989); Elizabeth Croll, Women and rural development in China, Women, Work and Development, no. 11 (Geneva: ILO, 1985); and, more narrowly, Ogawa Naohiro and Saito Yasuhiro. "Male and female differentials in labour force participation in contemporary China," in Women's economic participation in Asia and the Pacific (Bangkok: UN ESCAP, 1987), 69-96.

3.3.2 Impact of age and educational level on occupational structure

Analysis of the three age cohorts shows that the percentage of women in non-agricultural jobs was highest in the young cohorts with the best educational background (table 3.8). In the early days of the township-run industries, the workers did simple manual jobs and productivity was low. To raise productivity, these industries were in need of young and capable workers with a certain amount of education. That is why young educated women were among the first to shift to such non-agricultural jobs.

Table 3.9 Changes in occupation structure since the reform

3.3.3 Impact of the local economic development level on occupational structure

We see from table 3.9 that in Hengtang the percentage of women engaged in agriculture decreased by 29.8%, while that in nonagricultural work increased by 27.9% and that in housework by 1.8%. In Jiahong the percentage of women engaged in agriculture decreased by 18.8%; that in non-agricultural work increased by 7.6% and that in housework by 11.2% The comparison shows that in Hengtang, where the developmental level is higher, the surplus female work force mostly shifted to non-agricultural work, with only a small proportion shifting to housework. But in Jiahong, where the developmental level is lower, more women shifted to housework than to non-agricultural work.

Table 3.10, showing the occupational structures by age cohort, indicates that about 70% of the women in the young cohort in Hengtang have shifted to non-agricultural jobs, while in Jiahong only 19% have done so.

In Hengtang only about 35% of the elderly women report housework as their main occupation, and few middle-aged and young women do so, while in Jiahong as many as 56.7% of the elderly women report housework as their main occupation and about 20% of the middle-aged and young women do so.

Table 3.10 Occupational structure by age cohort

Both the economic developmental level and the variety of the town ship run industries bear upon the non-agricultural job opportunities for the surplus rural female work force. In Hengtang, where township-run industry is highly developed, local women have ample job opportunities in net making, silk reeling, embroidery, garment making, and the shoe industry. But in Jiahong the level of economic development is low and the township-run factories are mainly involved in processing food grain and edible oil, producing building materials, and repairing farm machinery. They do not provide enough job opportunities for men, still less suitable jobs for women. Many men in Jiahong get short-term employment as contract construction workers or seasonal labourers in nearby towns and cities. These jobs are strenuous and require skills such as bricklaying and carpentry for which most women are not trained. And those who work out of the village are strong hands who get a high income be cause of high labour intensity. They work away from home most of the year. This is another reason why their wives have to handle household chores at home.

3.3.4 Effects of marriage and child-rearing on women's participation in production

The percentage of rural women's participation in production can be affected both by the level of the local economic development and by the rhythm of women's life cycle and family structure.

When young girls start on full-time jobs, about 87% of them take part in agricultural or non-agricultural production and 23% do housework. The work they take is determined mainly by their family structure and the division of labour within the family. In their lineal families, young girls usually work in the field while the housework is done by their grandmothers. In nuclear families, some young girls take care of the household chores because their parents, who are in the prime of life, can earn enough income for the family; others have to work in the field while their mothers, who are not strong enough and have smaller children to care for, usually stay at home and do the household chores.

During the period between marriage and child-bearing, 89% of adult women take part in production and 11% do housework. Most of them live with their husbands' families and are young and strong and free from household duties. Housework is usually done by their mothers-in-law.

The percentage of child-rearing women's participation in production drops to 62%; that of women doing housework is 38%. This is caused by pregnancy and child-rearing duties and the change of the family structure. A great many married women leave their husbands' families to have their own home within a year or two of their marriage, usually before having children. In such nuclear families, housework becomes the young wives' major activity though their husbands offer some help.

Though women's participation in production in different periods of their lives follow a general pattern, it is inevitably affected by the level of the local economic development. The situations in Hengtang and Jiahong can be summarized as follows:

In Hengtang, when young girls start full-time jobs, 93% take part in production and 7% do housework. Of adult women after marriage and before childbirth, 98% participate in production and 2% do housework. of child-rearing women, 82% take part in production and 18% do housework.

Table 3.11 Changes in occupation at different stages of the life cycle

In Jiahong, when young girls start full-time jobs, 60% take part in production and 40% do housework. Of adult women after marriage and before childbirth, 80% participate in production and 20% do housework. Of child-rearing women, 44% take part in production, 56% do housework.

(Table 3.11 shows related data broken down by age cohort.)

The figures above show that, though the changes in women's participation in production in these two townships follow a general pattern, the difference in economic developmental level is another factor that affects participation. In Hengtang the percentage of women's participation in production in all periods is higher than that in Jiahong, while the number of women doing housework is less than in Jiahong.

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