Local Gender Norms Research Articles

How local gender norms and intra-household dynamics shape women’s demand for laborsaving technologies: insights from maize-based livelihoods in Ethiopia and Kenya

Where agriculture relies heavily on physical labor, small-scale mechanization can reduce labor constraints and contribute to higher yields and food security. Then, how to explain weak demand articulation for and adoption of small-scale mechanization, despite high labor burden? This study examines how intra-household gender dynamics affect women’s articulation of demand for and adoption of laborsaving technologies in maize-based systems in Ethiopia and Kenya. Using gender as a relational concept, and differentiating between different types of households, the analysis pulls together key underlying dimensions that shape women’s demand-articulation for small-scale mechanization. First, women’s labor often go unrecognized, and women typically are expected to work hard and not voice their concerns. Second, women generally lack access to and control over a range of resources, including land, income, and extension services. Third, the gender division of labor exacerbates this as women’s time poverty negatively affects their access to resources and information. Finally, decisions are primarily seen as men's domain, and women are often excluded. Our study contributes to the literature by offering a conceptual approach and methodology for the analysis of gender dynamics in relation to demand articulation and adoption of laborsaving technologies.

Gendered Places: The Dimensions of Local Gender Norms across the United States

In this study, we explore the dimensions of local gender norms across U.S. commuting zones. Applying hierarchical cluster analysis with four established indicators of gender norms, we find that these local cultural environments are best conceptualized with a multilevel framework. Commuting zones can be differentiated between those that are egalitarian and those that are traditional. Within these general categories, however, exist more complex dimensions. Gender-traditional areas may be distinguished between traditional-breadwinning and traditional-essentialist, while egalitarian areas are separated into those that are liberal-egalitarian and egalitarian-essentialist. Examining the factors sustaining this spatial variation, we test the role of compositional and contextual effects. We find limited support for compositional effects because commuting zone demographic makeup explains little variation in gender norm indicators. Instead, we find evidence that local gender norms are sustained through contextual effects where the experience of living in a particular environment shapes residents’ attitudes and behaviors. Contextual effects are exceptionally strong in areas with traditional gender norms, where residents who would otherwise hold gender-egalitarian perspectives (e.g., the highly educated) have more traditional outlooks than those who share the same characteristics but reside in places with egalitarian gender norms.

Making room for manoeuvre: addressing gender norms to strengthen the enabling environment for agricultural innovation

ABSTRACT Local gender norms constitute a critical component of the enabling (or disabling) environment for improved agricultural livelihoods – alongside policies, markets, and other institutional dimensions. Yet, they have been largely ignored in agricultural research for development. This viewpoint is based on many years of experience, including a recent major comparative research initiative, GENNOVATE, on how gender norms and agency interact to shape agricultural change at local levels. The evidence suggests that approaches which engage with normative dimensions of agricultural development and challenge underlying structures of inequality, are required to generate lasting gender-equitable development in agriculture and natural resource management.

Local Gender Norms: Persistence or Change? Reply to \u201cA Gendered Resource Curse? Mineral Ownership, Female Unemployment and Domestic Violence in Sub-Saharan Africa\u201d by Mario Krauser, Tim Wegenast, Gerald Schneider, and Ingeborg Elgersmar

In their recent article “A Gendered Resource Curse? Mineral Ownership, Female Unemployment and Domestic Violence in Sub-Saharan Africa,” Mario Krauser, Tim Wegenast, Gerald Schneider, and Ingeborg Elgersmar argue that international mine ownership alters employment possibilities for women in comparison to domestically-owned mines. They make the case that this also alters gender norms and find that foreign ownership decreases domestic violence reporting from women. In this reply, I take a closer look at the proposed mechanisms that local gender norms change around international mines and will review literature that finds persisting effects of gender norms on gender equality. Finally, I will assess the circumstance under which norms may change in response to outside interventions and suggest avenues for future research.

Why do community members believe mothers and babies are dying? Behavioral versus situational attribution in rural northern Ghana

ObjectiveRates of maternal and neonatal death remain high in the Global South, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa. In addition, indicators vary significantly by geography. This study aimed to understand what communities in northern Ghana with frequent maternal and newborn deaths or near deaths (near-misses) perceive to be the causes. As part of a larger study, four communities in Ghana's Northern Region were identified as areas with high concentrations of deaths and near-misses of mothers and babies. DesignStakeholders were interviewed using in-depth interviews (IDIs) and focus-group discussions (FGDs). Field workers conducted 12 FGDs and 12 IDIs across a total of 126 participants. SettingThis exploratory descriptive study was conducted in the East Mamprusi District in the Northern Region of Ghana, in the communities of Jawani, Nagboo, Gbangu and Wundua. ParticipantsFGDs were led by trained field workers and attended by traditional chiefs and their elders, members of women's groups, and traditional birth attendants in each of the four study communities. IDIs, or one-on-one interviews, were conducted with traditional healers who manage maternal and neonatal cases, community health nurses, and midwives. Measurements and findingsQualitative data were audio-recorded, transcribed, and thematically analyzed using the Attride-Sterling analytical framework. Discussions focused on where blame should be attributed for the negative outcomes of mothers and babies – with blame either being directed at the actions or inactions of the mothers (behavioral), or at the larger factors associated with poverty (situational) that necessitate mothers’ behavior. For example, some respondents blamed women for their poor diets, while others blamed the lack of money or household support to buy nutritious foods. Blame was rarely attributed to the fathers despite local gender norms of males being the household decision-makers with regard to spending and care-seeking. Key conclusionsThese findings contribute to a small but growing body of literature on the blaming of mothers for their own deaths and those of their newborns – a phenomenon also described in high-income countries – and is supported by blame attribution theories that explain the self-protective nature of victim-blaming. Implications for practiceThese results carry important implications for education and intervention design related to maternal and neonatal mortality, including more focused efforts at incorporating men and the larger community. More research is warranted on blame attribution for these adverse outcomes and its effects on the victims.

Gender Transformative Impacts from Watershed Interventions: Insights from a Mixed-Methods Study in the Bundelkhand Region of India

HighlightsSocial and technical interventions related to agriculture, watersheds, and capacity building should enhance women’s awareness, access, and decision-making role in agrarian communities.Strict gender norms and relations hinder the empowerment of women in the Bundelkhand region and prevent women from participating in the decision-making process at the household, farm, and community level.When implementing watershed projects in a highly patriarchal context, as in the Bundelkhand region, advocacy of behavioral change communication must be implemented, addressing the diverse needs of women and men.Strengthening of systematic and gender-sensitive institution building, social engagement, and capacity development for global water security is needed for sustainable watershed interventions.ABSTRACT. This study examined gender perspectives on water security by exploring an integrated water management approach for agriculture, livestock, and human consumption. The data were generated in a watershed project to enhance drought resilience of farming through groundwater recharge and agroforestry interventions in the water-scarce Bundelkhand region of Uttar Pradesh in central India. Post-intervention, a quantitative survey and qualitative gender and social analysis tools were applied to understand the benefits of the interventions for women, men, and the community as a whole. Quantitative data were collected from 700 individuals in five villages (three treatment villages and two villages where watershed interventions were not implemented). In addition, 33 semi-structured interviews and eight focus group discussions were conducted to understand local gender norms at the project sites. Data analysis revealed that the community benefits accrued from the watershed interventions included increased crop productivity and diversification of agriculture and livelihoods. However, strict patriarchal norms restricted the visibility, mobility, and communication of women within the household and community during the interventions. Considering gender diversity, this study identifies that women can benefit from participating in watershed interventions and provides a deeper understanding of the constraints and barriers to women’s participation in such projects, including economic, social, and cultural factors. The construction of check dams reduced women’s time per day for fetching water by about 29%. Groundwater level increases reduced the effort required of women to draw water from open wells and hand pumps. Female education is a significant factor related to the benefits of watershed interventions, and regression analysis indicated that households with higher levels of education of adult women were significantly more likely to benefit from the interventions than other households. To avoid perpetuation of the exclusion of diverse local knowledge and gender inequality at the community level, mechanisms must be developed and adjusted continuously such that whole communities, including men and women, are empowered to participate in the decision-making process at various levels and for different purposes. When implementing watershed projects in a highly patriarchal context, as in the Bundelkhand region where women are hidden behind the strong presence of men, advocacy of behavioral change communication must be implemented regularly. The community needs to be sensitized toward systematic and gender-sensitive institution building, social engagement, and capacity development for local as well as global water security. Keywords: Bundelkhand region, Gender, Social norms, Transformative, Watershed intervention.

Gender quotas and the selection of local politicians: Evidence from French municipal elections

Using data on the universe of elected politicians in French municipalities, this paper studies the impact of a gender quota law on the political representation of women and on the composition of municipal councils. The empirical strategy, a Difference-in-Discontinuities design, takes advantage of the fact that the policy applies to cities above a population threshold, and that this threshold has been modified over time. I find that the quota policy has a substantial impact on the share of female candidates and elected politicians, but fails to promote female mayors and list leaders, even in cities that have been exposed to the policy for 13 years. Women do not reach leadership positions because they are more likely to resign than male politicians. This higher propensity of women to leave politics is correlated with local gender norms concerning the place of women in society, and also varies with individual characteristics such as age and professional background. In a second part, I show that quotas have little effect on the composition of municipal councils in terms of socio-economic background, age, and political experience.

Implications of gendered behaviour and contexts for social mobility in the USA: a nationally representative observational study

SummaryBackgroundWe constructed measures of an individual’s gendered behaviour and their gendered environment to investigate the salience of gender norms during adolescence for social mobility during the next decade of life.MethodsIn this nationally representative observational study, we collected individual-level data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health), which enrolled a cohort of nationally representative school students aged 11–19 years from across the USA and followed them up for 14 years (ie, to age 25–33 years). We characterised gendered behaviour for adolescents in a performative sense via self-reports of behaviours and beliefs. We aggregated this individual-level measure to create a proxy measure of an individual’s social context by taking averages for an individual’s peers of the same sex and school year.FindingsBetween Jan 5, 1994, and Dec 26, 1995, Add Health collected data on a cohort of 20 745 students. 14 540 respondents were followed-up 14 years later between April 3, 2007, and Feb 1, 2009, of whom 7722 (53·1%) were female. More masculine male respondents were downwardly mobile; they were enrolled in school for fewer years and were more likely to have lower status jobs than their less masculine same-sex school peers. More masculine male respondents were also more likely to have jobs in occupational categories with larger proportions of males than their same-sex school peers. Gendered behaviour was not predictive of future educational and occupational attainment for female respondents. Male adolescents in school years with more masculine same-sex peers than male adolescents in other school years also tended to have lower educational and occupational attainment than their male peers. Educational and occupational attainment in early midlife for female respondents was not affected by their gendered environment.InterpretationGender, when measured as a set of gender-distinct behaviours in adolescence, was associated with differential patterns of social mobility from adolescence to young adulthood. Moreover, variation in an individual’s local gender norms has implications for subsequent socioeconomic attainment, especially for male adolescents. These findings have potential implications for observed health disparities.FundingBill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Enduring Legacies and Convergent Identities: The Male-Dominated Origins of the Kenyan Running Explosion

Abstract The colonial era in Kenya was a pivotal and transitional period during which aspects of local peoples’ existing gender roles and relations were challenged, renegotiated and, in the case of running, confirmed. British colonial intent to introduce running as sport to men aligned with Rift Valley societies that condoned male, though not female, running. Indigenous ideas and ways of living could operate in tandem with the historically masculine orientation of Western athletics, leaving a legacy of cultural synthesis that significantly constrained Kenyan women’s sporting prospects. Histories of sport in Kenya, and elsewhere, should take into account both external and local gender norms, as they existed prior to colonial contact, to understand better the gendered mechanisms through which sport “diffused” to empire.

Enhancing coastal livelihoods in Indonesia: an evaluation of recent initiatives on gender, women and sustainable livelihoods in small-scale fisheries

In recent decades, there have been considerable efforts to enhance, diversify, or implement alternative livelihood activities in marginalized coastal communities, to ease reliance on deteriorating coastal resources, reduce poverty and improve well-being outcomes. To date, gender has been notably absent from the literature on small-scale fisheries and associated livelihood improvement programs, despite increasing evidence of the importance of gender equality and women’s empowerment in achieving such outcomes in other contexts. In this paper, drawing from an evaluation of the effectiveness of 20 livelihood development projects implemented in coastal communities in Indonesia since 1998, we report on how gender was considered in these projects. We assessed whether and how gender was included in project rationales, and how men and women were included in project activities. We found that, despite the women being reached by many project activities, particularly efforts to increase women’s productive capacity through training and group-based livelihoods enterprises, 40% of the projects had no discernible gender approach and only two of the 20 projects (10%) applied a gender transformative approach that sought to challenge local gender norms and gender relations and empower women beneficiaries. Our assessment suggests the need for greater understanding of the role of gender in reducing poverty and increasing well-being outcomes in coastal communities. Lessons from comparable agricultural settings suggest that this may be facilitated by locally situated gender social relations analysis, integration of gender throughout livelihood improvement project cycles, gendered capacity building activities and shared learning from the evaluation of the gendered outcomes of project activities.

Power through: A new concept in the empowerment discourse

•Current empowerment efforts fail to capture a critical component of empowerment - its relational nature.•Individual's empowerment is constituted through the empowerment of others in significant relationship to them.•The ability of women to empower themselves is mediated through the deliberative support of others.•Community judgment of individual alignment with gender norms determines empowerment outcomes in daily realities.•Public adherence to local gender norms creates a safe façade to deviate from the norms.

Fathers favour sons, mothers don't discriminate: Sex-biased parental care in northwestern Tanzania.

Variation in parental care by child's sex is evident across cultures. Evolutionary theory provides a functional explanation for this phenomenon, predicting that parents will favour specific children if this results in greater fitness payoffs. Here, we explore evidence for sex-biased parental care in a high-fertility, patriarchal and polygynous population in Tanzania, predicting that both mothers and fathers will favour sons in this cultural setting. Our data come from a cross-sectional study in rural northwestern Tanzania, which included surveys with mothers/guardians of 808 children under age 5. We focus on early childhood, a period with high mortality risk which is fundamental in establishing later-life physical and cognitive development. Examining multiple measures of direct/physical care provision (washing, feeding, playing with, supervising, co-sleeping and caring when sick), we demonstrate that fathers favour sons for washing, feeding and supervising, while maternal care is both more intensive and unrelated to child sex. We find no difference in parental care between girls and boys regarding the allocation of material resources and the duration of breastfeeding; or in terms of parental marital and co-residence status. This bias towards sons may result from higher returns to investment for fathers than mothers, and local gender norms about physical care provision.

Taboo on TV: gender, religion, and sexual taboos in transnationally marketed Turkish soap operas

ABSTRACTThis study illuminates the ways in which men and women consume soap operas as a means of reflecting on and discussing sociocultural taboos. Through interpretive research we examine the ways in which religion, sexuality and gender relations are depicted in popular Turkish soap operas and how these depictions are consumed in the Balkans and the Middle East. This study challenges the assumption that consumption of taboo discourses leads to active identity modification or public defiance. Instead, in-depth interviews and online ethnography reveal that consumption of soap operas that challenge local religious and gender norms provide a liminal space for discussing taboo topics. Firstly, the findings indicate that talking about taboo topics seen in soap operas enables consumers to speak about what they expect gender and religious norms to be. Secondly, consumers get their mediated understandings of what religion is through soap operas. Thus, rather than simply offering escape, soap opera consumption facilitates the discussion of taboo topics.

Developing Trans-Affirming Health Services in an Underserved Area: An Intersectional Approach.

Purpose: Gender-nonconforming patients are at higher risk for medical problems that require prompt medical and mental health intervention. Barriers to healthcare for transgender individuals have been well characterized in the literature, but not in low resource settings. The purpose of this paper is to present the barriers encountered when bringing healthcare to transgender children, adolescents, and adults in a medically underserved, predominantly Hispanic area of the United States.Methods: In this medically underserved area on the U.S.-Mexico border, there is a severe shortage of medical expertise for transgender individuals at both the primary- and specialty-care levels. Further, given the mainly Hispanic population, there is an additional culturally based barrier to obtaining medical care for transgender patients.Results: It is important for academic centers in these regions to collaborate to overcome these barriers through a multidisciplinary approach that includes providing education for medical students and physicians in training and identifying medical providers who are able and willing to provide transgender-competent care adapted to local culture and gender norms.Conclusion: In this manuscript, we will describe the efforts of various groups to address the needs of the transgender community in the region.

The interplay between planned and autonomous adaptation in response to climate change: Insights from rural Ethiopia

Using the notion of institutional interplay, which refers to situations where the operation or consequences of one regime influence another regime, the article explores the interplay between planned adaptation and farmer households’ autonomous adaptation. Drawing empirical data from two drought-prone districts in Northeastern Ethiopia (Kobo and Raya Azebo), this article deals with the differentiated effects of planned adaptation, exemplified by Ethiopia’s Productive Safety Net Programme (PSNP). Two layers of differentiating effects are studied by looking at the differences between households that are and households that are not targeted by PSNP; and the more detailed differences are explored by zooming in on male and female-headed households, respectively, within the subset of households targeted by PSNP. We use semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions with female and male household heads and key informant interviews with government officials. Our study indicates that the interplay has a differentiated effect following the participation of households in planned adaptation programs and gender lines. We show that the effect on building community assets can be positive at the community level and expands autonomous adaptation particularly for non-targeted households; however, targeted households in general and female-headed households in particular experience a negative effect of the interplay: planned adaptation constrains autonomous adaptation due to time and labor demands of public work, program restrictions and local gender norms.

Community cognitive interviewing to inform local adaptations of an e-mental health intervention in Lebanon.

Lebanon has a need for innovative approaches to increase access to mental health care to meet the country's current high demand. E-mental health has been included in its national mental health strategy while in parallel the World Health Organization has produced an online intervention called 'Step-by-Step' to treat symptoms of depression that is being tested in Lebanon over the coming years. The primary aim of this study is to conduct bottom-up, community-driven qualitative cognitive interviewing from a multi-stakeholder perspective to inform the cultural adaptation of an Internet-delivered mental health intervention based on behavioural activation in Lebanon. National Mental Health Programme staff conducted a total of 11 key informant interviews with three mental health professionals, six front-line workers in primary health care centres (PHCCs) and two community members. Also, eight focus group discussions, one with seven front-line workers and seven others with a total of 66 community members (Lebanese, Syrians and Palestinians) were conducted in several PHCCs to inform the adaptation of Step-by-Step. Results were transcribed and analysed thematically by the project coordinator and two research assistants. Feedback generated from the cognitive interviewing mainly revolved around amending the story, illustrations and the delivery methods to ensure relevance and sensitivity to the local context. The results obtained have informed major edits to the content of Step-by-Step and also to the model of provision. Notably, the intervention was made approximately 30% shorter; it includes additional videos of content alongside the originally proposed comic book-style delivery; there is less emphasis on total inactivity as a symptom of low mood and more focus on enjoyable activities to lift mood; the story and ways to contact participants to provide support were updated in line with local gender norms; and many of the suggested or featured activities have been revised in line with suggestions from community members. These findings promote and advocate the use of community-driven adaptation of evidence-based psychological interventions. Some of the phenomena recorded mirror findings from other research about barriers to care seeking in the region and so changes made to the intervention should be useful in improving utility and uptake of 'Step-by-Step'.

Engaging men to promote and support exclusive breastfeeding: a descriptive review of 28 projects in 20 low- and middle-income countries from 2003 to 2013

BackgroundLay support has been associated with improved breastfeeding practices, but studies of programs that engage men in breastfeeding support have shown mixed results and most are from high-income countries. The purpose of our research is to review strategies to engage men in exclusive breastfeeding (EBF) promotion or support in 28 project areas across 20 low- and middle-income countries. This information may be used to inform program implementers and policymakers seeking to increase EBF.MethodsWe tested the difference between baseline and final EBF proportions using Pearson’s chi-square (a = 0.05) and identified project areas with a significant increase. We categorized male engagement strategies as low- and high-intensity, using information from project reports. We looked for patterns by intensity and geography and described strategies used to engage men in different places.ResultsTwenty-eight projects were reviewed; 21 (75%) were in areas where a statistically significant increase in EBF was observed between the beginning and end of the project. A variety of high- and low-intensity male engagement strategies was used in areas with an increase in EBF prevalence and in all geographic regions. High-intensity strategies engaged men directly during home or health visits by forming men’s groups and by working with male community leaders or members to promote EBF. Low-intensity strategies included large community meetings that included men, and radio messages, and other behavior change materials directed towards men.ConclusionMale engagement strategies took many forms in these project areas. We did not find consistent associations between the intensities or types of male engagement strategies and increases in EBF proportions. There is a gap in understanding how gender norms might impact male involvement in women’s health behaviors. This review does not support the broad application of male engagement to improve EBF practices, and we recommend considering local gender norms when designing programs to support women to EBF.

Gender, Health and Change in South Africa

This article addresses the question of how to "think about" and to "do" gender change in the context of HIV and public health interventions in South Africa. The issue of gender has been closely intertwined with the HIV epidemic in Southern Africa since the beginning of the epidemic. The need for more gender equitable practices and relationships has been a central theme of the response to the crisis. While much of this work has focused on efforts to reduce the uneven impact of HIV has on women and girls, there have also been important interventions with men and boys around gender and HIV. This article synthesizes findings from research projects with three such interventions. The findings presented here are drawn from three separate research projects conducted in South Africa in the last 10 years. The first was an ethnographic research project with the Khululeka Men's Support Group in Cape Town. The second was an independent program evaluation of the "One Man Can" campaign that was commissionned by Sonke Gender Justice, a gender transformation NGO in South Africa. The third project was a qualitative process evaluation of a trial that used male lay health workers to provide support and care to pregnant and postpartum women who were enrolled in a PMTCT program. Gender and gender change were understood and promoted in contrasting ways across the three case studies. In the case of Khululeka, HIV-positive men were encouraged to become "better men" within the context of existing gender norms by doing things that would protect their health and allow them to achieve socially valued roles as strong family leaders and financial providers. They began with a conventional HIV support group model but adapted it to better suit local gender norms around masculinity. In Sonke's One Man Can (OMC) campaign, the focus was on the ways men and women could address the underlying gender inequities in their families and communities. Participants were encouraged to raise their awareness and critical understandding of gender-related rights issues and mobilize for progressive gender change. Sonke staff struggled, however, to find ways of sustaining the changes they witnessed in OMC workshops and an ideological tension persisted between "culture talk" and "rights talk" about gender. Finally, in the PMTCT program, men were recruited to serve as lay counselors for HIV-positive pregnant women. By carefully training and supporting men in the daily practice of providing care for these women, male counselors developed trusting relationships, offered effective services, and in general, undertook a form of gender-transformed practice that exceeded much of what was observed in the other two case studies. There are many potential paths to gender transformation, and the HIV epidemic in Southern Africa has operated as a powerful catalyst for exploring and pursuing some of these paths. In the process, however, a number of political and conceptual limitations of gender transformation work emerged. There is a need to find ways of thinking about and acting on gender that isn't over-determined by the logics of public health and biomedicine. There is also a need to complement ideological arguments for "gender transformation" with more embodied opportunities for transformed gendered practice.

Infant and Young Child Feeding Decision Making and Practices: Malawian Mothers' and Fathers' Roles in the Context of HIV.

Few studies in low- and middle-income countries have examined the roles of couples in infant and young child feeding decision making and practices, and there is no corresponding data in the context of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Research aim: This study aimed to explore mothers' and fathers' perceptions of their roles in feeding decision making and practices. The authors conducted in-depth interviews with 15 mothers and their male partners, recruited from the catchment areas of two urban and two rural government clinics in Lilongwe District, Malawi. The mothers were ≥ 18 years of age, were HIV positive, and had a child < 24 months of age. Twelve of the 15 fathers were also HIV positive. The interviews were analyzed using content analysis. Mothers were responsible for child care, including breastfeeding and complementary feeding. Fathers provided monetary support for purchasing food and offered verbal support to encourage mothers to implement recommended feeding practices. Many fathers found it difficult to support adequate complementary feeding because of household food insecurity. Mothers were advised on child feeding during prevention of mother-to-child transmission clinic visits. No fathers in this study accompanied women to clinic appointments, so they were less well-informed about feeding than mothers. Fathers usually deferred to mothers in feeding decision making. One-third of mothers wanted fathers to be more involved in child feeding. Malawian mothers' and fathers' roles in feeding decision making in the context of HIV align with local gender norms. Strategies are needed to improve fathers' knowledge of and involvement in child feeding, as desired by mothers.

Gender and Urban Aspirations: The Case of Highly Educated Uyghur Women in Shanghai

AbstractIn spite of the growing attention given to minority Uyghurs in China, there has been little focus on gender issues in relation to the Uyghur migration to inland cities since the 1980s. Based on fifteen months of ethnographic research from 2012 to 2013, this article focuses on the lifeworlds of highly educated Uyghur women and their aspirations in the megacity of Shanghai. A combination of local gender norms, patriarchal Islamic ideologies, and state policies that aim to promote the emancipation of women have influenced the current status, conditions, and gendered identities of Uyghur women. Added to these are the shifting demands of an environment marked by rapid socioeconomic change in urban China that sees Uyghur women on the move. Tracing the migration story of Uyghur women through a case study of Xumar, a woman who pursued university education and then worked in Shanghai, I demonstrate the dilemma of staying or returning with which they constantly wrestle as they attempt to balance the normative Uyghur cultural values and their experiences of urbanism and cosmopolitanism in Shanghai. These factors all inform their understandings of what it means to be a Uyghur woman. Looking at the shifting ideas of gender among highly educated Uyghur women, this research contributes to understanding changes of Uyghur identity in relation to migration on the one hand, and reflects the ambivalence and complexity of Uyghur migration experiences on the other. Personal narratives of migrant Uyghur women shed light on the subtleties of the gender roles, arguments for and against returning home, and their later resignation to (arranged) marriages. The migration experiences gained by the women offer them a better understanding of themselves and of the demands and expectations of their cultural heritage. The urban aspirations of highly educated Uyghur women, this article argues, are produced by structural, cultural, and social factors that rely on dominant discourses of migration, minority, gender, age, class, and place.