"Middle-aged Factory Mom":Motherhood Practices of Rural Women Workers in the Context of County-Level Industrial Development
Based on field research at Factory H in the Industrial Park of G County,central Jiangxi,this study found that through the in-volvement in county-level economic development,middle-age rural women workers seized the opportunity to enter factories to work hard and overtime to raise income and live a frugal life.They could only strictly manage their school-age children during limited off-work hours,while increasingly marginalizing housework.However,when their paternal grandchildren required care,they gave up their jobs to take the responsibilities of intergenerational caregiving.This"middle-aged factory mom"motherhood experiences were shaped by the combined forces of migrant families'developmental needs and Industrial Park factories'order-based labor system.County-level urbaniza-tion has increased the economic demands of migrant families for children's education and familization transformation,promoting the shift of middle-aged women's role from family care to family livelihood.The order-based labor system not only aligns with women's urgent eco-nomic needs but also occupies their free time.While it allows them to expand their economic roles as mothers,this also marginalizes par-enting and housework.Gender-based dynamics within the family compel women workers to prioritize their sons and daughters'needs of faminilization transformation in a gendered manner,and to provide intergenerational caregiving for their paternal grandchildren in need.The study suggests that research on the motherhood practices of women workers at the bottom can be advanced by considering the inter-play of the changing needs of migrant families and the labor system of industrial production.
middle-aged rural women workersmotherhood practicesmigrant workers'familiescounty-level industriesorder-based la-bor system
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