Paper short abstract:

19th and early 20th century Chinese footbinding limited girls' and women's ability to move about. Macro-economic changes and globalization stimulated its demise. How did rural women overcome cultural resistance and shift from cloistered lives behind the courtyard gate to participate in public space?

Paper long abstract:

When industrial output engulfed Chinese markets, footbound female labor had to shift from intensive handwork at home to other types of training and labor that required physical movement outside the home. In less than 50 years, Chinese women broke through many cultural constraints on their physical movement. The economic context of changing demands for labor pushed and pulled women into public space. Cultural constraints enforced by family, clan and village also had to be confronted. How was resistance to women's presence in public spaces and participation in life outside the home overcome?

Drawing on ethnographic and survey data, interviews with now aged footbound women, and historical sources, I describe the barriers that hampered women's movement outside the home. In addition to economic change, political and social interventions by the state ultimately forced a profound and relatively rapid shift in the way women were expected to participate in public life. Although gender equality remains a distant goal, Chinese rural women have possibilities for movement through public space, for education, and for employment that many other Asian women lack. This paper considers steps involved in the transformation of women from "indoor" people to mobile citizens.