Empowered or Disempowered? Women's Participation in a Development Project in Rural China

In the last two decades in China, large international donor agencies and domestic women’s non-governmental organizations have become significant actors in improving the lives of rural women. Many development agencies have put the empowerment of women on the agenda of all their development projects and introduced new ideas and approaches to promote gender equality. This article aims to understand a new approach to women’s empowerment and explore the impact of local socioeconomic circumstances and power relations on project design, implementation and outcomes. It draws on ethnographic research into one community development project, conducted by one of the largest Chinese women’s NGOs in Pingxi County, Shaanxi province.