Human dignity, gender, and wellbeing in post-reform China: Women’s everyday lives in a Chinese city

Abstract

The post-reform transition in China since the 1980s has involved rapid economic, social, institutional, and policy changes amid marketisation, demographic transitions, and shifting social norms. These dynamics have profoundly affected womenʼs everyday lives. This article investigates their implications by drawing on a human dignity approach integrating interlinked dimensions: physical and psychological wellbeing, care relations, social integration, self-determination, and equal value. Through 33 semi-structured interviews with women in Guangzhou, the article reveals three mechanisms reconstituting gender inequality: trade-offs where gains in one dimension compromise others; intensifying inequalities where disadvantages reinforce across dimensions, particularly for rural migrants; and constrained autonomy where women navigate limited choices. The analysis demonstrates how social stratifications based on residency, employment, and family resources reconfigure womenʼs heterogeneous experiences in post-reform urban China. This article contributes to the literature on human dignity, social policy, and gender by foregrounding a way to understand and research the multidimensionality of women’s experiences.