Gender Roles and Female Labour Migration —A Qualitative Field Study of Female Migrant Workers in Beijing

Based on in-depth interviews with single and married rural women working as temporary migrants in Beijing, this thesis explores motives for migration, as well as consequences of migration on women with regard to social status and their status as dughters, wives and mothers. The thesis concludes that customs regarding marriage and child-bearing in the home villages of the migrants contribute to their wish to leave the countryside. Moreover, in addition to moving to the city to find a job, single migrant women often hope to find a partner, and thereby the destinction between labour and marital migration is blurred. Experiences of migration contributing to shifting migrant women's ideals and aspirations for future husbands. However, due to conflictig norms between their families, themselves and their home communities as well as their subordinate status as "rural migrants" in the city makes their chances at the "marriage market" look dim.