Law, Development and the Socio-Economic Rights of Chinese Women

Abstract:     
How has the complex interaction of markets, law and development added or subtracted to the well-being of ordinary Chinese citizen? Specifically, this article examines how the development of a private market and accompanying legal structure resulted in Chinese women’s greater sense of rights entitlement and rights assertion. But abstract rights and the implementation of legal codes do not always mean rights adoption and neither does formal equality always translate into substantive equality. Through an analysis of 64 questionaires collected from legal aid litigants collected between the fall of 2002 and spring of 2003. The questionnaires unravel the complicated legal attitudes and the gender differences between those litigants who are facing these market changes and who chose to use the legal system.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 16

Accepted Paper Series