CJACKIE WEST is a Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Bristol.ZHAO MINGHUA is a Research Associate in Sociology at the University of Bristol.CHANG XIANGQUN is a Research Officer and PhD candidate in Social Anthropology at the China Research Unit, City University.CHENG YUAN formerly research fellow at the Policy Studies Institute in London.

• List of Tables List of Figures Foreword Preface and Acknowledgements Notes on the Contributors Introduction: State and Economy in the Making of Women's Lives; Zhao.M & J.West PART I: POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC TRANSITIONS State-society Relations and Women's Political Participation; Qi.W Understanding Changes in Women's Status in the Context of Recent Rural Reform; Zhang.H.X. PART II: GENDER, MIGRATION AND LABOUR MARKETS The Role of Women in Labour Migration: a Case Study in Northern China; Song.L Divided Gender, Divided Women: State Policy and the Labour Market; Huang.X From Weaving Stars to Bitter Flowers: Tradition, Reform and Women Textile Workers; Zhao.M PART III: FAMILY AND HOUSEHOLD RELATIONS To Have a Son: the One Child Family Policy and Economic Change in Rural China; Mu.A 'Fat Pigs' and Women's Gifts: Agnatic and Non-agnatic Social Support Relationships in Kaixiangong Village; Chang.X Rural Privatisation and Women's Labour: Property Rights and Gender Concepts in Inner Mongolia and Xinjiang; Zhang.M PART IV: ORGANISING FOR CHANGE Women and the Public Sphere: Education, NGO Affiliation and Political Participation; Shang.X The Development of Women's Studies: from the 1980s to the Present; Mu.D Index