The Puzzle of China's Leftover Women

Sammanfattning: The aim of this thesis is to identify the roots of the leftover women phenomenon in order to understand why it has appeared. In particular, we examine why the leftover women are having difficulties in finding a husband in the Chinese marriage market. Additionally, we establish whether the leftover women phenomenon may be a consequence of the increasing patriarchal norms in China. Through an in-depth and qualitative case study, we have conducted 15 interviews with highly educated, unmarried women in their mid-late twenties, in Shanghai and Beijing during April 2016. Subsequently, relying on a deductive approach, four themes have emerged from our participant’s narratives: 1) Modern versus Traditional; 2) Increasing Standards; 3) Paradox Oversupply Men versus Undersupply Women; 4) Economic and Marital Independence. The most recurring feature in all themes was the increasing patriarchal norms that clashed with the modern values of leftover women. Therefore, our findings reveal, that the leftover women’s modern lifestyle get dominated by the increasing traditional values of the Chinese society. Even more, we present a trickle-down effect of the phenomenon, starting from the implementation of the one-child policy, and ending with the leftover women. All in all, the apparent feature of increasing patriarchal norms suggest that the leftover women phenomenon results from a resurgence of gender inequality.