Gender, Families, and Wealth Accumulation Among the One-Child Generation

Prior literature on gender and wealth accumulation largely examines the role of families in reproducing inequalities. However, less attention has been paid to families without sons, a significant demographic, particularly within China's one-child generation, that challenges conventional understandings of familial wealth dynamics. This study addresses this gap by proposing a new conceptual framework: families as sequential and interconnected sites and agents of wealth accumulation across the life course. It specifically applies this framework to investigate the experiences of siblingless daughters from China's one-child generation. Drawing upon 82 individual interviews, this research argues that families are dynamic and sequentially unfolding sites of wealth transfers, acting as both enablers and limiters of women's wealth accumulation. This perspective reveals how family structures, resources, and roles transform and interact at various life-course stages. The findings demonstrate that siblingless daughters are significant recipients of wealth transfers-including cash, valuables, and property-from multiple givers across key life-course stages such as university education, career entry, and marriage and childbirth. While wealth transfers within natal families are often relatively uncontested, access to marital wealth remains highly contingent on women's adherence to patriarchal expectations, particularly childbearing and the production of male heirs. By highlighting a life-course lens and the evolving, relational nature of family-based wealth transfers, this study exposes consistent yet competing relationships and power dynamics. It reveals instances of merit-based opportunity within these dynamics, alongside the reinforcement of enduring patriarchal constraints. This new conceptualisation not only allows for a deeper examination of persistent patriarchal constraints as they evolve and accumulate across life-course points, but also exposes niche spaces where some women negotiate and potentially subvert these constraints to accumulate wealth. Therefore, this study advances research on gender and wealth by illuminating the complex interplay of familial relationships, resources, and roles across the sequential life course.