Doctoral Dissertation Research: Getting Divorced in the Countryside: Marital Grievances, Dispute Resolutions, and Gender Inequalities.

Indiana University, Bloomington IN

Investigators

Abstract

By studying rural women seeking divorce, this project will explore the disputing behavior of two enormous segments of the contemporary Chinese population: rural residents and women. In post-Mao rural China, how have rapid social changes affected marriage and family life? To what extent and by what means do rural residents mobilize law to address marital disputes? In what ways does a grassroots legal system redress inequities and injustices and in what ways does it reproduce and reinforce them? In China, women are far more likely than men to initiate divorce litigation; in recent years, this gender disparity in divorce lawsuits has become ever more pronounced in the countryside. However, to date no research has explored Chinese women's litigiousness. In highlighting rural women's experiences of divorce litigation, this project will present a study of legal mobilization and dispute resolution in the rapidly changing social world of China. This project examines the aforementioned issues through an ethnographic study of divorce litigation in rural Sichuan Province in southwest China. The research will include semi-structured interviews with divorce litigants, legal workers, judges, and court clerks; participant observation in the courts and surrounding communities; and legal document analysis. By situating research inquiries in contemporary rural China, this project aims to produce highly contextualized knowledge about law, politics, and gender. Meanwhile, this project also seeks to cast new light on: (1) the processes and mechanisms whereby legal mobilization and dispute resolution reflect, create, and destroy inequalities and injustices, (2) the extent to which the rise of the rule of law in formerly authoritarian societies has transformed preexisting power structures, and (3) the social forces that are reshaping marriage, family life, and gender relationships in transitional societies.