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3.4 The impact of economic development on rural women's income

3.4.1 Changes in family income since the reform

Total per capita family income in Hengtang in 1986 was about 3.5 times that of 1978. In Jiahong the 1986 figure was about 5 times that of 1978.

3.4.2 Changes in relative income between husband and wife

Half of the elderly and middle-aged women surveyed in Hengtang and Jiahong earned less than their husbands in 1985, and half earned amounts similar to or larger than those earned by their husbands. In Hengtang 84% of the young women's husbands earned more, and in Jiahong the figure was 74%. In all the cohorts there were some women whose husbands earned more than twice as much as they did. (See table 3.12.)

Changes in relative income between husband and wife alter the reform have been faster in Hengtang than in Jiahong:

In Hengtang the proportion of elderly women whose husbands earned more than the wives in 1985 was down 21% from the figure in 1978, and the proportion who earned more than their husbands was up 27%. The proportion of those in the middle-age cohort whose husbands earned more was down 19% and that of those who earned more than their husbands was up 13%.

Table 3.12 Changes in wives' incomes relative to their husbands' since the reform

In Jiahong the proportion of elderly women whose husbands earned more than the wives in 1985 was down only 3% from 1978, and that of those who earned more than their husbands was up 10%. Of the middle-age cohort, the proportion whose husbands earned more was down 2% and that of those who earned more than their husbands was up 8%.

Table 3.13 Decision-making in the choice of a marriage partner

3.5 Changes in the marriage situation

3.5.1 Changes in styles and decision-making in marriage

The life experiences of the women in the three age cohorts clearly indicate changes in the circumstances of marriage.

All the women in the elderly cohort got married before New China was founded in 1949, when feudal marriage was the rule in rural China. Though specific practices differed from area to area, rural women's marriages were, as a rule, arranged by their parents and matchmakers. In most cases, the man and his bride did not know each other before marriage. The elderly women in Jiahong described their marriage as "buying a cat covered by linen," meaning they knew nothing about their prospective life partners. Our survey (see table 3.13) showed that 93.3% of their marriages were arranged by parents and only 3.4% were based on their own choice. In Hengtang 80.6% of the marriages in the elderly cohort were arranged by parents and 9.7% were decided by themselves.

After New China was founded, a new marriage law was promulgated in 1950, prohibiting prearranged and mercenary marriages. The provisions of the marriage law such as equality and monogamy were widely publicized in the rural areas during the land reform and the cooperative movement.

Women in the middle-age cohort were introduced to suitors by their parents or other go-betweens, and the marriage was concluded by mutual consent. Among the middle-aged women in Jiahong, 46.7% made their own decision in marriage, as against 3.4% among the older women. Marriages arranged by parents constituted 31.7%, and marriages decided on through consultation between parents and daughter accounted for 14.2%. In Hengtang, the corresponding figures were 46.4% (as against 9.7% for the older women), 34.4%, and 17.6% respectively.

Women in the young cohort married in the late 1970s or the 1980s, with a much higher degree of self-decision. In most cases the two parties were first introduced to each other by relatives or friends, but marriages arranged by parents still constituted a sizable proportion. Among the young women in Hengtang, 71.4% of their marriages were self-determined, as against 46.4% among the middle-aged women. Parent-arranged marriages accounted for 12.5% and marriages made through consultation, 14.3%. In Jiahong in the same period under study, the rate of self-determined marriages in the young cohort was lower. The corresponding figures were 49.4% (compared with 46.7% of the middle-aged women), 25.3%, and 21.5% respectively. This shows that the feudal influence is still fairly strong there.

According to the young women and local leaders in Jiahong, nowadays in the rural areas one usually does not pick a life partner from among colleagues in the work place or look for one by oneself. The usual practice is to be introduced to a member of the opposite sex by relatives or mutual friends. If both parties are interested in each other, the woman will visit the home of the man to find out about his family conditions. If she is satisfied, her parents will visit the man's home to talk with his parents. If the parents of both parties are also satisfied, a banquet is offered by the man's family at which betrothal gifts are presented symbolizing engagement. After that the young couple can start dating in public.

Table 3.14 Women's ages at first marriage

3.5.2 Tendency towards marriage at a later age

The average age at marriage in Hengtang was 18.4 years for the elderly women, 21.1 for the middle-aged, and 21.7 for the young. The averages in Jiahong were 17.0 years for the elderly women, 20.8 for the middle-aged, and 20.8 for the young. (See table 3.14.)

While the average for the women in Jiahong is lower than in Hengtang, the tendency towards marriage at a later age is evident in both townships. The women there generally believe that women married too early in the past. They believe that the best marriage age for women is between 20 and 23 and that the husband preferably should be two years older than his wife. At such ages, men and women are more mature, which is beneficial to both the couple and their offspring.

3.5.3 Age gap between husband and wife

We found the following figures for the relative ages of husbands and wives.

- Husband older than wife:

elderly cohort, 82.7% (average age gap 5.9 years),
middle-age cohort, 73.9% (average age gap 4.4 years),
young cohort, 72.6% (average age gap 3.7 years).

- Husband and wife of the same age:

elderly cohort, 8.2%,
middle-age cohort, 12.7%,
young cohort, 18.5%.

These figures show that the traditional concept that husband should be older than wife is still prevalent, but it is beginning to change. The age gap between husband and wife has gradually narrowed and the number of couples at the same age is increasing.

(Table 3.15 shows the data broken down by field location.)

Table 3.15 Relative ages of husbands and wives

3.5.4 Criteria for choosing a life partner

The traditional concept of basing the choice of a spouse on family conditions has changed little in rural areas since the late 1940s and the 1950s. When evaluating a prospective spouse, the attention of the young woman and her parents is usually focused on the following:

- the social status of the man's family, such as the social stratum they belong to,
- the financial status of his family, especially their housing condition,
- the qualifications of the young man himself.

These long-term considerations are attributable to the circuitous path of China's rural economic development between the 1950s and the 1970s. Several decades of egalitarianism in distribution and slow economic growth have led people to set store by the man's financial and housing conditions instead of his ability and talent. These materialistic conditions were too important to be ignored in planning the marital life of the young couples as it was hard for them to improve their economic life on their own.

Since the rural reform, the household contract system has done away with egalitarianism in distribution and created favorable conditions for people to strive and succeed. Thus, the individual's ability. professional competence. and work-style have come to the fore as criteria for choosing a husband. Family conditions are losing ground to the caliber of the individual.

The 99 unmarried young women in our survey in Jiahong gave the following as their major criteria for choosing a life partner:

(1) moral integrity - 51 women favored upright, hardworking, reliable young men doing an honest job;

(2) personal ability - 33 women favored intelligent, capable young men with strong muscles and professional skill;

(3) common interests - 8 women wished to share likes and dislikes with their husbands;

(4) congeniality - 7 women favored mutual consultation and agreement;

(5) good family financial condition-only one women favored this.

These changes in the criteria for choosing a life partner signify conceptual progress emanating from the rural economic reform. In the two townships, such a change of concept is reflected in the minds not only of the young people but also of the middle-aged and elderly women when they choose spouses for their children.

However, the rural economic growth is only beginning to bring prosperity to all, and so the financial standing of the man's family still counts, though at a lesser degree. In Jiahong, when a young woman visits the young man's home, she observes his family's economic and housing conditions closely. We interviewed 13 young married women in Hengtang and made a study of the conditions of the young couples' families. We found that 7 of the women's families were economically on a par with their husbands', and the other 6 women's families were financially inferior to their husbands'. None of the women's families were better off than those of their husbands. This shows that, although young women are beginning to pay more attention to the man's personal quality when they choose a life partner, his family's economic status also figures as an important criterion.

It seems that such values as common interests and congeniality do not count much in deciding a young woman's choice of a spouse in Jiahong. Material considerations tend to take precedence and represent the trend in attitudes toward marriage.

3.5.5 Betrothal gifts and dowry

In Hengtang and Jiahong alike, it is the common practice for the husband's family to provide the newly married couple a home with furniture. Sometimes the furniture is provided by the wife's family or by the newly-weds themselves. The husband's family should present a certain amount of money or some valuables to the wife's family as betrothal gifts. The dowry from the wife's family includes bedding, clothing, and utensils. With increased family income, more expensive items such as bicycles and home electrical appliances have been added to the dowry.

The presentation of betrothal gifts and dowry, which is a customary practice left over from the feudal marriage system, imposes a heavy burden on the parents of the newly-weds. Great efforts have been made by the government and society at large to abolish it but with little success in the rural areas. Our survey shows that the majority of the women in all three age cohorts in both Hengtang and Jiahong still prefer the practice. Here are their reasons:

- Young people in the rural areas begin working when they are small and hand all their earnings over to their parents, whose responsibility it is to arrange their wedding and prepare betrothal gifts or dowry for them.

- The young woman's parents in almost all cases think that, since their daughter has worked for the family for years before marriage and contributed to the family chest, it would not be right to marry her off without a dowry. Otherwise, her brothers would benefit gratuitously from her contributions to the family income.

- As for betrothal gifts, the young man's parents believe that they have nothing to lose, because the gifts for their future daughter-in law will return to their family after marriage. Some young men's parents think that their in laws' family will lose an able-bodied person by marrying off their daughter, so it is reasonable to give betrothal gifts as a remedy for their economic loss.

- In addition, people who have become well-off in recent years fear that if they did not follow the general trend and comply with convention, people would sneer at them.

At the current developmental level, the family remains a production unit and the unmarried young people are not economically independent. They need their parents' material support to get married. That is why some people still favor the practice of betrothal gifts and dowry, whose raison d'etre cannot be denied, at least for the present. How to arrange weddings in an appropriate way to avoid extravagance and waste still remains a question for study and research.

3.5.6 Divorce, widowhood, and remarriage

Among the 623 married women surveyed, there were 6 divorced women, accounting for 1% of the married women. They had all re married. Eighty-two, or 13%, were widowed, of whom 22, or more than one fourth, had remarried.

Most of the women in all three cohorts no longer feel bound by the feudal rule of remaining devoted to one husband even after his death. They hold that a divorce should be worked out if mutual affection no longer exists between husband and wife, and that a divorced or widowed woman has the right to remarry and should not be discriminated against.

When asked if divorce is necessary in case of complete alienation of mutual affection, 72% of the elderly women, 85% of the middle aged, and 89% of the young said yes. But the majority in all the cohorts were inclined to believe that divorce may not be the best solution for couples who, although not on good terms, are still reconcilable. They think that, after all, divorce is detrimental to the family and women, and especially the children, and that it is better to bring about a reconciliation in cases of incomplete alienation of affection.

Among the small number of women who oppose divorce and remarriage per se, only a few are feudal-minded, fearing unfavorable reputation and public opinion. Most of them regard remarriage as impractical and troublesome because a divorced woman, burdened with the children from the previous marriage, would find it hard to marry a second husband and handle the complicated interrelations in the new family.

As to the question of how long a widow should remain single, about one third of the women in all the cohorts think that it depends on the circumstances and that the duration of widowhood is not a determinant. But most of the women think it is better to wait for a year or longer to recover from the deep sense of loss after the death of the husband.

Most of the divorced and widowed women made their own decision on remarriage. Some discussed the matter with their family members, but only a few got remarried through the arrangement of the elders in their family

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