As a researcher of rural women research center of Rural Research Institute of Huazhong Normal University, we often visit the towns and villages in central and western counties. In the last year or two, we have a common feeling that the rural women coming on the road have become beautiful. Especially those young mothers who come out of their families and work at home door are increasingly beginning to make up, dye their hair and wear bright skirts. The smiles on their faces began to show confidence.

Today, Chinese rural women are more and more different from the traditional concept of "rural women": face to face the sky, do not clean up, bring children at home, serve the elderly, housework, busy, rarely think of themselves. In fact, there are always some high-level meanings behind the word "rural women" - obviously, no one will call a woman in a city "urban woman". More and more rural women sign up to learn beauty makeup skills.

Behind the beauty of rural women in China, it is the improvement of family status and self-confidence. And behind the two improvements, there are two reasons. First, because of the imbalance of the proportion of men and women in China, rural women in the Midwest have more and more matrimonial initiative, and secondly, more and more rural women begin to work at home door, which increases family income.

In the past month, we have jointly organized ant group research institute, China Women's daily, China Women's network and National Beijing Yichuang rural women's public welfare development center. From the perspective of rural women starting to work nearby, we have distributed questionnaires to 170 counties and 496 towns in China, and 2082 effective questionnaires have been recovered, and they are also collected in Shaanxi, Shanxi Guizhou and other provinces visited more than 50 rural women who worked outside their homes, forming the 2021 China rural women employment survey report. One of the data confirms our intuitive feeling: 60.9 percent of rural women who work at home say they will now go out and make up.

One of the more important findings we have learned is that behind more and more rural women finding jobs at home is the digital employment opportunities that are sinking together with the Internet. Most of these new jobs value responsibility, patience, communication and empathy. These are women's advantages, so it opens up a new space for rural women in the Midwest to get employment nearby.

one

Rural women "white collar"

The goods anchor, artificial intelligence trainer, cloud customer service and rural nurturing teacher... Five years ago, for a rural woman, these are all words that can not be understood. Now, they have become familiar with the professional choice around.

During the visit to Yijun, Qingjian and Tongren in Guizhou, we saw the recruitment advertisements of artificial intelligence trainers, cloud customer service and wig craftsmen (a link of the global e-commerce industry chain of wigs) on the street poles and square screens in front of the county government. A cadre of the women's Federation in charge of recruitment in Yijun, Shaanxi Province, said that she called all the young mothers who brought the babies at home. I have an office job here. Would you like to consider it?

It's a scene that never happened. Previously, rural left behind women were generally full-time mothers, because it was difficult to find the right job in the county and township. For example, zhangxinghua, of Hongdong County, Linfen, Shanxi Province, was a beautician in Beijing before marriage. After marriage, she went home to have children. She tried to find a job. But she found that there was only one dusty factory in the county, which was only the factory of the middle and old men who were willing to do, and the fried chicken shop and barber shop, so she had to stop.

Two or three years ago, things began to change as digital technology and the Internet sank. A large number of digital jobs began to sink. Some are digital new jobs created by the explosive growth of Internet platform economy, such as online cloud customer service, artificial intelligence trainers, etc., and some are new employment space brought by the sinking of Internet business model, such as logistics, e-commerce live broadcast, etc. Moreover, these digital employment opportunities will further expand employment intake volume with the rapid development of the Internet. In April of this year, Alipay recruited artificial intelligence trainers and online cloud customer service in Shaanxi Qingjian, Yijun, Guizhou Tongren and other counties. The enrollment rate increased by 2-8 times. Because of the emphasis on patience, responsibility and communication ability, the proportion of the practitioners' gender is "the most part of the female" status. For example, Guizhou, Shaanxi, Shanxi and other county governments introduced Alipay data tagging projects, among which 62.3% of the artificial intelligence trainers recruited locally were women. 72% of the online cloud customer service recruited and trained by ant cloud customer service were female. 53% of the live broadcast of village Taobao were women. In 2020, Zhang Xinghua became an online cloud customer service of Alipay. In only half a year, Zhang Xinghua has been promoted to the highest level - Shenji. This means that she can prioritize the working hours with her baby. Now, Zhang Xinghua works six hours a day, earning more than 4000 yuan a month on average, and the highest one earning more than 6000, which is far higher than the local average income. This reflects two characteristics of digital employment opportunities: a large number of opportunities are concentrated in central and western counties and towns, with incomes generally higher than the local average. For example, the average monthly income of AI trainers in Guizhou and Shaanxi is 3100 yuan, as well as social security and medical insurance. It is worth mentioning that these digital employment are concentrated in the tertiary industry, the office environment is similar to the city white-collar workers, and it appears "advanced" because of the Internet attribute. These characteristics hold the social status of practitioners and the recognition degree of acquaintances. More than 50 women we visited said that husband and mother-in-law were very satisfied with their work and were also happy to boast that their daughter-in-law was strong outside.

two

Rural women

More and more women are emerging in the rural areas of the central and western regions.

According to our survey data, 58 percent of rural women said they were more willing to start their own businesses. In the field of entrepreneurship they are interested in, they are the first to engage in Internet related entrepreneurship.

Ju yingzhe of Taohua Town, Weixian County, Hebei Province, seized the tuyere of e-commerce sinking seven years ago, contracted the pick-up point in the village, developed from two to seven, took the driving license, bought a car, and hired 4 people to transfer from the county to the village every day, and distributed more than 1000 packages. It is worth mentioning that rural women who choose to start businesses face a common problem: if they want to expand their scale further, they need the support of capital flow.

Borrowing money used to be a problem. A 2010 survey of rural women entrepreneurship in nine cities in Liaoning Province showed that 37% of rural women urgently need the support of entrepreneurship funds, but the government provides low loan lines, small quantity and complex procedures. And when women apply for entrepreneurial loans, they need to be handled with the help of their husbands at home.

But at present, rural women have ushered in entrepreneurship. Under the common goal of rural revitalization, local governments actively provide farmers with various agricultural interest free loans and low interest loans for entrepreneurship, and financial institutions have also actively promoted the sinking of digital financial services.

In 2021, the No. 1 central document first proposed the development of rural digital Inclusive Finance, which pointed out the direction for the development of rural finance. During the two sessions this year, representatives of the people's Congress pointed out that rural finance will serve rural revitalization and agricultural development in the future.

Liu Yingfeng of Yichun, Jiangxi Province, was born to catch up with the dividend. In 2017, Liu decided not to work in a big city anymore and go home to plant fields. Relatives and friends are against the choice, or feel they can't get along in big cities.

Back in the countryside, Liu Yingfeng has continuously expanded the contracted land area, from 200 mu to more than 2000 mu. What supports her expansion is satellite loans from the e-commerce bank. Satellite loan refers to the positioning of the land contracted by the mobile phone by lbs. it is photographed by satellite and sent to the online commercial bank. In these photos, the land area, crop type, crop maturity and other conditions are clear and become a reliable credit reference.

This financial lever is becoming popular in the towns and villages of China. According to the data of online commercial bank, the number of rural women in China using contactless digital loans in 2020 increased by 35.4% compared with last year. In addition, platforms such as venture capital guarantee loans and micro loans from government and financial institutions are also becoming more inclined to borrow to women. Because women are more trustworthy than men, women loan users are 27 percent lower than men in terms of overdue default rates. Liu estimates that, with the increase of mechanization and satellite loans that are being borrowed with them, their net annual income will reach about 800000 next year. Several relatives who opposed them to go home four years ago to farm now have also come. He rented a house in the village, and transferred from the couple Liu Yingfeng to contract 1000 mu of land. He was keen to do some famous work in this most traditional industry. They will never say that Liu Yingfeng "narrower the road of life", because now, this road not only goes to the ground but also goes to the sky, it is almost.

three

Go to the test drive with my husband

The economic situation of rural women directly affects their family status and discourse power.

The family relationship between the left behind women in the countryside is very delicate. Young mothers bring children at home, have no independent income source, always in the dependent and subordinate status in the family, often lack of discourse power, not be valued.

In addition, because husbands work outside the country all year round, they have to raise children with their parents. In this process, they are often in a weak position. Because the husband who can play the mediator is not there, there is a conflict between the mother and daughter-in-law.

For those rural women who marry to other places, the situation is more complex. After leaving the original social network, they are often in a helpless situation.

Ju yingzhe is a typical external married daughter-in-law. The girl who married far from Inner Mongolia to Hebei Province, once a series of doors will be questioned by her mother-in-law.

When they were employed at the door of their home, they had a significant change. According to our survey data, 33.3% of respondents think that their family status has been significantly improved compared with the past few years; 36.8% of respondents thought that their family status had improved. In their view, the highest proportion of the reasons for the change of their family status is that "they have jobs and can make money" account for 64 percent of the reasons.

Zhang Xinghua, who is an online cloud customer service who has achieved the "divine calculation" level in Hongdong County, Linfen, Shanxi Province, went to buy a car at the end of last year. He not only took her to Linfen for test drive, but also bought her favorite brand and color, a white Nissan. As far as we know, in the event of car purchase, the men in the rural areas of the Midwest were basically determined by themselves.

For Ju, it is not only her mother-in-law that is polite and respectful to her. Because she often helps the village people bind bank cards, teach them how to return goods, how to contact customer service, often someone to pick up the goods to her to plug a bag of fruit, a pork. Walking on the street of Taohua Town, Ju Ying zhe will smile at everyone, because "many people know me, I can't call my name, I laugh at everyone.". four

When rural mothers start to make up

Economic independence also brings about the change of rural women's self-consciousness and self-awareness.

The physical and mental condition of rural women in China has not been satisfactory for a long time. 87% of rural left behind women generally feel lonely, 38% of them have depression level of medium or above [1], 20% of them have never checked their body in recent 5 years. The food and medical opportunity in the family will be given priority to children, husbands and old people, and finally they are themselves.

[data source: 1. Lai Yuncheng. Mental health of rural left behind women: status quo, influencing factors and Countermeasures: Journal of Yunnan Agricultural University (SOCIAL SCIENCE), 2019, 13 (3): 30-35; 2. Jianghong, lijihua and Fu Lanying. Survey of health status and health needs of rural left behind women: Hunan social science, 2014, (2)]

Our data show the internal changes of rural women: 69.8% of women say they only feel depressed occasionally, 78.2% say they are beginning to understand how to be good for themselves, and 80.1% are confident in their future life.

Zhang Yongli, who is a wig hook in Yijun, Shaanxi Province, said that every weekend, women workers will take their children to the county town to rub a meal, a meal of more than 200 yuan, everyone AA. One of the women workers who often attended the party used to buy only 3 or 2 meat at a time, and only for the children, "I can't eat one bite of meat a year.".

The new social circle after going out of the house obviously relieved their mental stress and improved their self-awareness.

In the interview, we found that cloud customer service group is a full of sister feelings, and they may not meet each other, but their psychological distance is very close. Anyone who asks for help in a group will be immediately responded to.

Zhang told us that in the past two years, she had any problems and troubles. The first response was to go to cloud customer service group to ask for help. A worker once felt that the down payment of a house was tens of thousands in the group. Some sisters immediately said they could lend her“ The group of workers and friends makes us feel that we have strong backing besides family.

They are beginning to treat their rural women well and try to influence the next generation. For example, Ju yingzhe, she now goes out every day before makeup and shampoo has become a ceremony“ Look at the mirror in the makeup of their own, a day of mood will be good. " She hopes to set an example for her daughter, "I know how to treat myself and love myself since I was a child.".

five

You can get a good son from the cold gate

Ju also has a "amazing move" to send her daughter to a well-known private school in Hengshui, with an annual tuition fee of 30000 yuan. This education investment has never been heard in the village, but Ju has never doubted its value.

The mental state of rural women becomes more confident and positive, and will directly affect their attitude and patience to children. Some studies have shown that the education level of rural women engaged in the tertiary industry is higher than that of the children who are engaged in agriculture. Because the former can realize the importance of education more, and thus increase the investment in children's education. In fact, after having an independent source of economy, rural women have begun to spend money for their children in other places that have been considered "wasteful".

For example, Zhang Xinghua recently signed up taekwondo class for his 5-year-old son. Every weekend, the school would drive a car to pick up the children in the village to attend classes in the county and then send them back. The reason why there is this transfer service is because the children in the village sign up for various interest classes in the county.

Yang Ting, who made live video business in Yijun, Shaanxi Province, plans to finish her daughter's wish this summer vacation: take her to Xi'an, the provincial city, to see the terra cotta warriors and horses, and then eat a steak. Neither the mother-in-law nor the husband opposed the travel plan. As Yijun's most powerful e-commerce anchor, Yang Ting helped the company achieve ten times the sales performance growth in a year. At the annual meeting at the end of last year, the boss not only gave her a 12000 yuan red envelope in public, but also promised that she would start holding shares in the company from now on. Yang Ting's biggest wish is to let her daughter have good education, broad vision and rich life like her peers in the city. "Rural children can also have more possibilities for life.".

six

The main force of Rural Revitalization

The willingness of rural women to work outside their home is very strong. Once they have the right opportunity, most rural women have strong willingness to work. Our survey data shows that 65.5% of respondents want to be financially independent and make more money. 53.9% of the people hope to improve their skills and find a promising job.

This is directly related to the overall employment willingness of Chinese women. China's female labor participation rate has been the world's top, with the latest figures of 70 per cent followed by Australia, France and the United States. Once the right opportunity is available, rural women will burst into amazing efforts and creativity. The appearance of the female strong man in the early Shan Shan of Heilongjiang a city is very strong. Born in the countryside, the 80's mother started selling facial mask, and now has her own skin care brand, which specifically deals with the rapidly growing beauty and skin care needs of the market.