Using data on 54,373 migrants from the Fifth Sampling Survey of the
Floating Population of Shanghai, this article isolates a group of 32,967
rural labor migrants who hold rural household registrations and whose
previous occupations were in agriculture, and focuses on the women
among them. The demographic and occupational characteristics of these
9,124 women are described, demonstrating that migration to Shanghai is
a highly gendered process, with men and women working in different
occupations and sectors. Moreover, important differences are found to
exist between unmarried and married female rural labor migrants that
indicate that the latter are probably accompanying and working with
their migrant husbands. A significant proportion of female "social"
migrants also exhibit characteristics that indicate that they are the spouses
of male rural labor migrants, bringing to over one third the proportion
of rural labor migrants to Shanghai who could be migrating as couples.
These couples and their children may be the vanguard in a transition
from temporary labor migration to settlement in China's large cities.