Interviewing women in the rural China...

"It used to be that men did the heavy work and the women did the light work, but now there are more women workers than men workers, so the women do it all and the men just supervise them"

"Farmers wouldn’t dare think of marrying city women. Even if they did, the women wouldn’t be interested. Farmers have less education and they work in the fields. They are just too different. It would be no use even if a man wanted to"

"Not a few of the older cadres say bluntly that it is a waste of time to try to teach women special skills because they can’t learn them"

"Women have everything to do – cook, wash clothes, feed the pigs and sheep, clean the house. Men are very busy outside too, but when they come home they can rest. Not women"

"What is women’s proper work? They work in the fields, raise the children, take care of the pigs, do the washing, cook, and mend clothes.
What is men’s proper work? They go to work"

"To be a woman means you must always be doing things for other people"

"Of course it is more important to send the boy to college. Men can do big things and women cannot"

"Maybe I have feudal ideas, but it seems to me the boys are mine and the girls belongs to others"


Source: "Revolution Postponed: Women in Contemporary China", by Margery Wolf, 1985