RURAL MARRIED WOMEN’S NON-AGRICULTURAL EMPLOYMENT AND RURAL HOUSEHOLDS’ LAND SUBCONTRACTING

Abstract

Rural households’ land subcontracting is analyzed in this paper based on the survey of rural migrant workers from Guangdong and Jiangsu, finding that the labor migration mode of “migrant couples going out to work together†(men workers and women workers) has improved the lagging non - agricultural employment of rural women to a certain extent. Non - agricultural employment of men does not necessarily lead to the transfer of land that achieves an increase with the increase of non - agricultural employment of married women. As a result, the original family division (“men to work while women to farmâ€) is evolved into the intergenerational division (“men and women to work while the elderly to farmâ€). The agricultural labor supply from the elderly is an important factor influencing rural households’ concurrent business, while the lack of strong labor will become an important reason for the transfer of land. The agricultural feminization and rural households’ concurrent business will decline with an increase in non-agricultural employment of married women. The differentiation of rural households and the development of rural land-transfer market will be further promoted due to the improvement of non-agricultural employment of married women.