Rural women migrant returnees in contemporary China

This essay focuses on the experiences of female returnees in ruralurban migration in contemporary China. Based on in-depth interviews with women migrants, returnees, their family members, friends and fellow villagers in both sending and receiving areas, the research examines rural migrant women's return migration process. It investigates rural migrant women's decision-making in the process, the ways women returnees construct their lives in the countryside, their identity negotiation as returnees and the impact of patriarchy on women's experiences of the return and resettlement process. The author argues that despite women's active involvement in migration and the empowerment and agency' gained through migration, the patriarchal power relations within rural households remain intact and continue to shape rural female returnees' life in their villages.