Gender and Home Ownership

This topic came up in a class assignment for my Chinese History and Culture course. This assignment was on a reading - “When a House Becomes His Home” by Deborah S. Davis. We usually do reading summaries on articles for this course but this article got me thinking about gender and home ownership.

Basically from what I’ve read, home re-privatization in China did not become popular again until around the 1990s. Prior, renting was much more common and apartment dwellers shared the majority of amenities - this was after communes had been dismantled. As you can see, even though the communes were dismantled around the time Deng Xiaoping was in power, the commune lifestyle still had an effect on shared spaces in China.

During the time period between the dismantling of the communes and the rise of home ownership, feminization of the home was quite common. We see a lot of “feminization” of the home in western culture. For this reason, in China, the home was often referred to as a “mother’s home.” Feminization of the home was categorized by organization of the home in a utilitarian fashion as well as the home being cluttered with the possessions of women. Even though this was considered a feminine space, the apartments were often under the man’s name. However since the men did not necessarily own the home, they invested much less time than women into making the space their own. 

This changed with the re-privatization of homes and the growth of home ownership. It is more likely that men have the homes under their name than women. Men, now being able to make changes to their home, did so investing time and energy making it their own space. What was once considered a “mother’s home” was now dominated by men. 

It’s important to realize that despite the “feminization” of the home, renting and owning a home was still something largely delegated to men. China is largely a patriarchal society and women were to focus more on a domestic lifestyle. It only made sense that women, who were in a way confined to a specific space, would make the space more personal and useful to them. In western culture, we see the ‘feminization’ of spaces all the time. Just watch HGTV for a day and you’ll get the idea. Usually when making over a room or home for a heterosexual couple, the decisions on color and decoration are mostly the female’s choice. I think this goes into our traditional ideas of who owns what space in a culture or society. Sometimes we forget though that while women may personalize a space, they don’t always “own” a specific space - more likely they are confined to a specific space or we have a long tradition of confining women to a specific space. 

It’s become less and less apparent nowadays in American society but do we or do we not still consider the personalization of a home as primarily a feminine activity? Building a home and reconstructing a home, as it has become popular in China with increasing ownership, is almost always considered a masculine activity. Why is that? I think it has something to do with the idea of ownership. Family homes are still dominantly owned by males and are therefore controlled by males. Seriously, how many times do I have to hear a man say “this is my house, I can do what I want!” Yet when it comes to a woman wanting to personalize or change the home, it comes down to either the man either begrudgingly going along with it or refuses to have anything to do with it because it is a “feminine” activity.

Of course the traditional ideas of home ownership and ideas of masculine and feminine spaces and activities are changing. That doesn’t mean tradition doesn’t still have an impact on home ownership and space. This phenomenon of home ownership in China is interesting because the home has been reclaimed by the men. Where does this leave women then? Women feminized the home because that was the space they were confined to and expected to be confined to. They were meant to want to be confined to the home. This is a cross-cultural thing. We can say that women are becoming more independent - less dependent on the home - while men are becoming more invested with the home. I don’t think this is necessarily the case. Women in large part still do not own the family home. Outside of the home, women still do not have the same equal opportunities as men. This is especially so in China’s highly competitive work force. 

The personalization or feminization of the home by women is largely due to women traditionally being viewed as home-makers or house-wives. They were expected to keep house and be confined to the home. The home has long since been viewed as a women’s space or a feminine space…but do or did women really own that space? Looking at this phenomenon of home ownership in China, it is clear to me that they did not. Merely, they were keeping the home for their husbands and children.