Her voice in the making: ICTs and the empowerment of migrant women in Pearl River Delta, China

Abstract

Various studies have shown that the use of social media via mobile devices is ubiquitous among the new generation of migrant workers in China. However, for young female migrant workers, aged between 18 and 35 years, despite the significant increase in their access to information technology, very few web-based contents are targeted at them or address the issues they face. In terms of social media participation, it is still quite difficult for them to express their views online. While Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) can be largely used to overcome the gender digital divide among less privileged populations, discussion on such practices and their impact has been inconclusive so far. Drawing upon ethnographic fieldwork carried out in the Pearl River Delta in China, this paper reveals that government-implemented and market-driven internal migration presents a tangible opportunity to tackle longstanding challenges of the gender digital divide amongst female workers. This paper also outlines the possibilities for innovative and strategic use of ICTs to technologically empower women migrant workers in China.

Abstract in Chinese

研究显示中国新生代打工者通过移动设备使用社交媒体已十分普遍。然而,尽管18岁至35岁的年轻女性打工者对信息技术的使用显著上升,网上适合她们或针对她们所面临的问题的内容还是非常欠缺。她们透过社交媒体发表意见仍然相当困难。虽然信息和通信技术(ICTs)常被用来解决弱势群体当中的性别数字鸿沟问题, 对相关做法及其成效至今一直没有定论。本文以在中国珠三角开展的田野调查为基础揭示政府和市场引导的内部移民为应对女工所面临的性别数字鸿沟这一长期挑战提供了实在的机遇。本文还概述了以创新战略性手法利用信息通信技术协助女工赋权的可能性。

Keywords:

• ICT
• gender digital divide
• woman migrant workers
• China

Keywords:

• ICT
• 性别数字鸿沟
• 女性打工者
• 中国

Notes on contributor

Jue SUN co-founded and joined Half The Sky Public Education, a Hong Kong based NGO, in 2010 on a voluntary basis as its Executive Director. This organization is committed to empowering women migrant workers in China through innovative uses of the media, technology and other platforms for public education. After receiving her PhD in Sociology from The University of Hong Kong, she has been actively using her knowledge for social advocacy campaigns run by the organization. Jue SUN is a great believer in innovative public education for the purpose of positive social change.

Notes

1. The report on China’s migrant population, ‘peasant workers’, was released on November 28, 2016 by National Bureau of Statistics (National Bureau of Statistics, 2016).

2. According to Ming Pao Weekly, currently there are over 2.5 million woman migrant workers in Shenzhen, among them around 60 percent working in the manufacturing industry (Woshinvgong, 2016).

3. This was a public event organized by a leading labor NGO in Shenzhen in 2012 to help migrant women make their voices heard(Pengchengxunmeng, 2012).

4. The survey on the media usage patterns of migrant women was conducted in 2016 by Half the Sky Public Education in collaboration with leading labor NGOs mainly located in the Pearl River Delta, which refers to areas such as Shenzhen, Guangzhou (including Panyu), and Dongguan that have a concentration of migrant populations.

5. WeChat and QQ are the two most popular messaging apps in Mainland China developed by Chinese Technology conglomerate Tencent.

6. Over an eight year period from 1997, the proportion of Internet users who were female rose from 12 to 46.4 percent (CNNIC, 2016). The Internet users without college attainment accounted for 80.3 percent. Another survey on access to ICTs among women migrant workers conducted by Half The Sky Public Education in 2013, which interviewed 215 participants, showed that up to 58 percent owned a 3G smartphone (96 percent in 2016) and around 59 percent of the interviewees were online at least once a day.

7. China Internet Development Statistics Report 2016 by China Internet Network Information Centre (CNNIC, 2016).

8. Each session consisted of five to seven female participants and lasted one to two hours. Six sessions were conducted at different locations in Guangdong Province according to the preferences of the participants.

9. According to Liff & Shepherd (2004), take-up of access is one of the key dimensions of Internet access affecting gender digital divide, defined in terms of whether men and women are Internet users; have varied length of use; how much use they make of it; and what range of activities they use it for.

10. Pearl River Delta refers to areas such as Shenzhen, Guangzhou (including Panyu), and Dongguan with a concentration of migrant population. According to official census statistics in 2011, more than one third of the population in Guangdong Province was reported to be of migrants. In the major manufacturing centers in the Pearl River Delta, they even exceeded that of urban residency holders. For example, there were only 2.7 million urban residency holders out of a total population of 15 million in Shenzhen.

11. A study conducted in 2008 found that female workers in Foxconn, the major iPhone manufacturer in Guangdong Province were forced to work at least 268 hours per month, which is up to 14 hours on a daily basis. (Pingguoribao, 2008)

12. A preliminary study on the media usage patterns of 215 migrant women was first conducted in 2013 by Half the Sky Public Education in collaboration with leading labor NGOs in Mainland China.

13. http://www.jianjiaobuluo.com

14. Half The Sky Public Education is a Hong Kong-based NGO founded in October 2010. It is committed to empowering women, especially women migrant workers in China through innovative use of the media, technology and other platforms for public education. In the past, Half The Sky Public Education has launched a series of multi-platform media campaigns aiming to raise consciousness against gender based violence and change public perceptions and attitudes towards female workers. ‘Jianjiaobuluo’ is the current project of this organization (http://half-the-sky.org/en/).

15. During the International Women’s Day we published a photo essay of twelve female workers in Shenzhen and documented their most memorable life stories (MianmianDancy, 2016).