Seminar 6 of Hilary Term’s Sociology Seminar Series

Please join either in person or online. For in-person attendees, the talk will be preceded by a light lunch at 12.15pm.

Please email comms@sociology.ox.ac.uk with any questions or to receive the Microsoft Teams link.

About the seminar

Based on a section of my book, The Children of China’s Great Migration, this talk draws on qualitative data to explore the gendered distribution of resources and chores to children in rural families in China, and the children’s perceptions of parental distributional practices when their parents have migrated without them.

The talk begins by discussing conceptual approaches to gendered inequalities among children in households and to parental differential treatment (PDT) of children. Thereafter, three topics are covered. One is the children’s perceptions of how their gender impacts on what their parents aim to provide for them. Second is children’s perceptions of inequality in the adult caregivers’ everyday treatment of them vis-à-vis an opposite-gender sibling or co-resident cousin. This includes inequalities in (1) the distribution of food and treats, and access to daily items such as the television remote control; and in (2) the allocation of household and farming chores. Third is children’s views of gender inequalities in their parents’ decisions about which sibling stays behind in the countryside and which sibling migrates with the parents.