Online banking and women's increasing bargaining power in marriage: A case study in a ‘Taobao village’ of southern Fujian

Abstract

This article explores the extent to which the advent of e-commerce and online banking has enhanced the ability of rural women to manage family finances. The prevalence of digital payment has reshaped economic life in rural China, but how the adoption of online banking has impacted power relations in rural families remains underexplored. Drawing from ethnographic data collected in a Chinese Taobao village, I reveal how female online sellers' access to joint earnings with their husbands, through sharing digital payment accounts, has expanded their ability to curb their husbands' excessive personal spending, thus allowing them to better manage household income. I also delve into this issue by taking into account intergenerational power relations in the processes of female online sellers' exercise of agency, a dimension of which has not been adequately explored in the scholarship on digital banking and women's financial status in developing regions.