Sweet unbinding: Sugarcane cultivation and the demise of foot-binding

Nora Cheng, Elliott Fan () and Tsong-Min Wu

Journal of Development Economics, 2022, vol. 157, issue C

Abstract: We analyze the economic motives for the sudden demise in foot-binding, a self-harming custom widely practiced by Chinese females for centuries. We use newly-discovered Taiwanese data to estimate the extent to which females unbound their feet in response to the rapid growth in sugarcane cultivation in the early 20th century, growth which significantly boosted the demand for female labor. We find that cane cultivation significantly induced unbinding, with the IV estimations utilizing cane railroads – lines built exclusively for cane transportation – support a causal interpretation of the estimated effect. This finding implies that increased female employment opportunities can help eliminate norms that are harmful for females. Further analysis suggests that the need for human capital improvement was more likely to have driven the effects of cane cultivation, rather than the increased intra-household bargaining power for females.

Keywords: Foot-binding; Social norm; Gender role; Sugarcane (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J16 N35 Z13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Working Paper: Sweet Unbinding: Sugarcane Cultivation and the Demise of Foot-Binding (2021)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:deveco:v:157:y:2022:i:c:s0304387822000463

DOI: 10.1016/j.jdeveco.2022.102876

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