The Ground beneath Her Feet: Women’s Land Rights and Migration in Rural China

Xinhong Fu
Fei XIE, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Guangzhou)
Wanru Xiong, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Guangzhou)

Land remains a cornerstone of economic security in rural China. It supports livelihoods through farming for both self-consumption and market sale. It also brings non-labor income, such as compensation from land leasing and expropriation. In principle, women are entitled to land rights on an equal basis with men. In practice, however, women are often systematically excluded from land rights due to entrenched patriarchal norms hidden in the ambiguities of the legal framework, regardless of their marital status. When women are unmarried, they are seen as future members of another household and thus denied land rights in their natal village. Once married, they are stripped of natal rights, while their husband’s village is often unwilling or unable to redistribute land to include them. Even when they obtain land rights through marriage, the rights may be revoked upon divorce or widowhood. Consequently, women excluded from land rights are left economically dependent on male household members or compelled to seek alternative means of survival elsewhere. This research examines the relationship between women’s land rights and their migration decisions. First, we utilize DeepSeek, a powerful large language model with strong capabilities in understanding Chinese-language content, to automatically extract relevant information on women’s land rights from court judgments in land disputes. Second, we use the population census data to capture women’s migration behaviors. Third, we apply regression analysis to examine the relationship between women’s land rights and their migration. Through quantitative analyses, the study reveals how institutional unequal economic resource distribution creates out-migration incentives.

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 Presented in Session P4. Migration, Migrants, and Mobility