There was little potential for rural women to achieve independence. China was a women's paradise just as it was a workers' paradise, in name only. As a result, women's participation in economic activities increased rapidly compared with their lives under the commune system. The sexual division of labor has also been less rigid under the family economy, although a sharply differentiated division remains in terms of housekeeping and childbearing. But with most work carried out within the household, women's traditional role as mothers has become easier and is often more appreciated.
Women have more flexibility working both in the fields and at home.
In many cases, women's increasing power within the family has been directly linked to their economic contribution to the family. Rural women have become an important source of family income through raising chickens, ducks, pigs, and eggs. While men and women work together in the fields to satisfy the grain quota, women work alone on these sideline items, which were the first to bring in cash after markets formed. One survey in Zaoyang county showed that in most households, wives make the same as their husbands. In fact, the better-off the household, the more equal the income contribution.