Fanqi Wen, Assistant Professor, Sociology, The Ohio State University
Title: Renegotiating Patriarchy: Property, Lineage, and Gender Inequality in Contemporary China
Abstract: Gender wealth gaps persist across societies, often attributed to individual factors such as education, work experience, and lifetime earnings. However, structural inequalities rooted in traditional patriarchal kinship systems—characterized by patrilineal inheritance and patrilocal marriages—systematically exclude women from inheriting family wealth. To examine how women and their families navigate these institutional barriers in wealth and inheritance, I conduct original survey and field research in China, where rapid economic and demographic transformations coexist with enduring patriarchal norms. Specifically, I demonstrate that in the Chinese context, where surname inheritance is closely tied to wealth inheritance, declining fertility rates, coupled with economic and cultural shifts, have spurred growing public support for assigning maternal surnames to children. I argue that this renegotiation of patrilineal practices surrounding surnames and lineage enables Chinese women to secure greater support from their natal families. These findings shed light on the mechanisms through which social change unfolds within patriarchal systems and reveal key conditions for women’s empowerment in the private domain.
