While many rural men are working hard to make a living in cities, their wives back home are often left with the task of taking care of children, the elderly, livestock and crops.

Left-behind women are confronted with many social and psychological issues. Dancing Solo: Women Left Behind in Rural China, published in 2009, depicted some major problems that left-behind women encounter in daily life.

The book was co-authored by Wu Huifang, a researcher with the College of Humanities and Development at China Agricultural University, and Ye Jingzhong, a professor at the university. For this study, the researchers interviewed hundreds of left-behind women in Anhui, Jiangxi, Hunan, Henan and Sichuan provinces, which are major sources of migrant workers in China.

The researchers found that 92.4 percent of the women surveyed handled both housework and farming, while 35.5 percent took care of two children or more. More than half of them reported that they were unable to handle all the fieldwork and therefore had to seek help from other people.

One of the women Wu met in Sichuan during a site study was a 43-year-old and had been married for 20 years. Ever since their marriage, her husband had spent most of his time working on construction sites in major cities. In addition to taking care of the child and elderly at home, the woman managed two large mushroom greenhouses, fed silkworms and grew rapeseed and rice on two patches of land.

These women commonly suffer from loneliness. The husbands of 66.7 percent of the women surveyed were not at home for most of the year. A little over half of these husbands left their hometowns more than 10 years ago, and most only returned to visit once a year.

These left-behind women said that during busy agricultural seasons, they were overwhelmed by the heavy workload. As a result, 69.8 percent of the women surveyed said they often felt agitated, and 50.6 percent experienced anxiety, while 39 percent often felt depressed.

Some women told researchers that when they felt exhausted and depressed, they vented their anger on their children, and sometimes physically or verbally abused them.

The study also found that about 8.3 percent of left-behind women had also experienced a marriage crisis or divorce. Among these women, some could no longer endure the loneliness and left their husbands, while others were jilted by their husbands for a new woman in the city.

Mutual help

To solve problems facing left-behind women, support groups have been established across China. So far, women's organizations across the country have helped set up 221,200 such groups, according to China National Radio.

Support groups in Taiping Village in Qingxi Township, Hanshan City in Anhui, were set up in the autumn of 2002. Their founder Wang Zilian appeared on a program on national broadcaster CCTV in March to share her experience with a national audience.

Taiping Village has 2,598 residents in 720 households. More than 800 people worked away from their hometown, leaving 260 left-behind women, including Wang.

Wang said that she hit upon the idea of establishing a mutual support organization in 2002 when she found many left-behind women worrying about how to harvest rice and take care of their young children at the same time.

"If left-behind women can work together and divide work, the rice can be harvested more efficiently and the children can be taken better care of," Wang said.

Within the mutual support organization created by Wang, seven to eight left-behind women form a support group, with one member assigned to cook and take care of children and the elderly, and other members working in the field.

Rong Liangmei, a left-behind woman, used to cultivate 0.13 hectares of rice by herself. When the rice was ripe, if her husband could not return from the city, she had to hire workers. Now, the six members in her support group can get the rice cut within a day, while they also have a chance to chat with each other.

Ding Yihong is very happy with the mutual support organization. In 2001, since her family did not have enough labor to harvest rice before a heavy rain storm, half a ton of rice ended up rotten in the field. Once she joined a support group, this has not happened again.

The support groups also give left-behind women a platform to communicate about their feelings and experiences in educating their children and in handling family affairs. Sometimes, members also watch entertainment programs together.

Group members also often talk about how to get rich. Ling Meimei is good at raising pigs. She has raised more than 10 sows and scores of pigs at home. She hopes to teach other group members to raise pigs.

Chai Daoju runs a chicken farm in the mountains. Last year, the farm sold more than 3,000 chickens. This year, she plans to work with members of her group to expand the chicken farm. 

Email us at: wanghairong@bjreview.com