Gender difference in inheritance rights: observations from a Chinese village

This article analyses inheritance in Chinese village society within a broad notion of welfare and social policy research. Its central concern is with the gendered dimension of inheritance. Based on fieldwork, the study reveals a significant gap between legislation and reality with daughters losing their statutory rights to their brothers in rural households and the village community despite the legal recognition of equal rights between women and men in property and inheritance. The article argues that while pluralist welfare provision is emphasized in promoting well-being in rural China, the problem of unequal entitlements and rights of men and women calls for more effective government actions in the form of social policy-making to combat gender discrimination and gendered exclusion, and to ensure more gender-equitable welfare outcomes.