How Gender Dynamics Shape Off‐farm Work in Upland Southwest China

Gendered demands for productive and reproductive labor differently affect men's and women's decisions about not only whether to undertake off‐farm work, but where. With data from a survey of households in southwestern China, we examine the effects of individual, household, and community attributes on decisions to take local or distant off‐farm work. Men's and women's off‐farm work decisions respond differently to care and farmwork needs. For women, the primary trade‐off is between distant off‐farm work and none. For men, the primary trade‐off is between distant and local off‐farm work. Women in households with more working‐age members are more likely to take distant off‐farm work rather than stay on the farm. Increased education and household labor make men more likely to take distant relative to local off‐farm work. Household land holdings also have differing effects: for women, increased cropland area reduces odds of migration, while for men it increases odds of local relative to distant off‐farm work. By disaggregating off‐farm work location, we uncover gendered patterns that binary approaches to off‐farm work or migration obscure.