Entanglement of modernity, ethnicity, and contested empowerment: Gendered paradoxes in a Miao Village Development in China
Chuanhong Zhang *, Heshui Huang
Women’s Studies International Forum 114 (2026) 103200
Abstract: China’s rural revitalization strategy drives transformative interventions in remote ethnic communities, yet its gendered consequences remain critically under-examined. Through longitudinal participatory observation and open-structured interviews (2021–2024) in a Miao village in Southwest China, this study interrogates how development reconfigures household and community gender dynamics. The intersecting forces of ethnicity, patrilineal norms, and modernity co-produce an empowerment paradox: while development projects provide economic resources, women’s transformative agency remains unrealized due to systemic entrenchment of patriarchal structures, manifested in the intensification of reproductive labor, dilution of women’s economic gains and other cultural-institutional backlashes. Development impacts diverge critically between dual-participant and female-only participant households. These results demonstrate that patriarchal backlash disrupts resource-to agency conversion, showing that economic interventions alone are insufficient to dismantle structural inequities. Policy imperatives include redistributive care services, interventions through women’s cooperatives, and digital asset governance. By centering ethnic minority women’s experiences, this research advances an intersectional framework for feminist development praxis, revealing how modernity’s promises are mediated by enduring hierarchies of gender and ethnicity.
Keywords: Modernity, Ethnicity, Women empowerment, Intersectionality, Rural China
To link to this article: 
Entanglement of modernity, ethnicity, and contested empowerment.pdf
Entanglement of modernity, ethnicity, and contested empowerment: Gendered paradoxes in a Miao Village Development in China
Chuanhong Zhang *, Heshui Huang
Women’s Studies International Forum 114 (2026) 103200
Abstract: China’s rural revitalization strategy drives transformative interventions in remote ethnic communities, yet its gendered consequences remain critically under-examined. Through longitudinal participatory observation and open-structured interviews (2021–2024) in a Miao village in Southwest China, this study interrogates how development reconfigures household and community gender dynamics. The intersecting forces of ethnicity, patrilineal norms, and modernity co-produce an empowerment paradox: while development projects provide economic resources, women’s transformative agency remains unrealized due to systemic entrenchment of patriarchal structures, manifested in the intensification of reproductive labor, dilution of women’s economic gains and other cultural-institutional backlashes. Development impacts diverge critically between dual-participant and female-only participant households. These results demonstrate that patriarchal backlash disrupts resource-to agency conversion, showing that economic interventions alone are insufficient to dismantle structural inequities. Policy imperatives include redistributive care services, interventions through women’s cooperatives, and digital asset governance. By centering ethnic minority women’s experiences, this research advances an intersectional framework for feminist development praxis, revealing how modernity’s promises are mediated by enduring hierarchies of gender and ethnicity.
Keywords: Modernity, Ethnicity, Women empowerment, Intersectionality, Rural China
To link to this article: Entanglement of modernity, ethnicity, and contested empowerment.pdf
