Urbanization, Aid, and Education: The Mobility Risk of Chinese Women in the Hollowing Village

Abstract

This paper examines the experience of rural minority girls and women in China's “hollowing out” countryside after massive transfer of rural labor to cities. We explore how urbanization, poverty alleviation initiatives, education, and patriarchal structure produce complex terrains through which marginalized rural females negotiate upward mobility against odds. Rural girls' and women's accounts reveal the “mobility risk” of a most vulnerable population, as well as their personal agency as they strive towards various aspirational futures.