Littéralement « petite soeur travaillant pour un patron », le terme dagongmei désigne la main d’œuvre chinoise féminine salariée non qualifiée composée de jeunes filles non mariées souvent originaires de milieux ruraux, et migrant hors de leur village, parfois hors de leur province pour trouver un emploi. Les dagongmei représentent une catégorie de travailleuses précaires, main d’œuvre occasionnelle facilement interchangeable produite par les politiques de développement économique de la Chine au cours des quatre dernières décennies. Depuis les années 90, la médiatisation de scandales sur les conditions de travail des sujets dagong retentit en Chine et au niveau international, appelant les entreprises à repenser leur rôle social. D’autre part, face aux inégalités socio-économiques et politiques qui déterminent les parcours actuels des Chinoises, le gouvernement adopte un positionnement s’affichant comme résolument en faveur de l’empowerment des femmes. Cette thèse porte sur un groupe de jeunes femmes issues de villages ruraux de la province du Yunnan et employées à Kunming dans une entreprise à capitaux étrangers se définissant comme fonctionnant de manière socialement responsable et pourvoyeuse d’empowerment pour ses employées. Si le projet de modernité et de mondialité de la Chine a façonné de nouveaux sujets-travailleurs dagongmei et dagongzai, par la transformation de corps de migrants ruraux en corps de travailleurs industriels, quels sujets dagongmei un projet d’entreprise socialement responsable se propose-t-il de contribuer à produire ? Comment penser les processus d’individualisation au sein de groupes subalternes selon une perspective prenant en compte les rapports sociaux de sexe ? / Literally "little sister working for a boss", the term dagongmei refers to the unskilled, unmarried, often coming from rural areas female labor force, migrating out of their villages, sometimes out of their province to find a job. The dagongmei represent a category of precarious workers easily interchangeable produced by China's economic development policies over the past four decades. Since the 1990s, the media coverage of scandals on working conditions of dagong subjects increased in China and internationally, calling on companies to rethink their social role. On the other hand, considering the socio-economic and political inequalities that determine the current paths of Chinese women, the government adopts a positioning that is resolutely in favor of women's empowerment. This thesis focuses on a group of young women from rural villages in Yunnan province who are employed in Kunming in a foreign-owned enterprise that defines itself as socially responsible and empowering its employees. If the project of modernity and globality of China has shaped new subjects-workers dagongmei and dagongzai, by the transformation of bodies of rural migrants into bodies of industrial workers, what subjects dagongmei a socially responsible enterprise project to contribute to produce? How can we think of the processes of individualisation within subaltern groups from a perspective that takes into account the gendered relations?

Widely considered the world’s largest migration, the ongoing rural-to-urban migration in China is unprecedented in terms of scale and impact. Millions of Chinese peasants flood to cities in waves to try their fortune. Among them, dagongmei, literally translated as “working sisters,” who are single, young, and undereducated rural women working in cities, are believed to be one of the most marginalized communities. Their segregation and discrimination in the labor market has been well documented. As a major life event, their marriages have also received academic attention, but the marriage of dagongmei in current literature is generally considered a means towards achieving social advancement, often terminating their migratory trajectory. Few studies address the question of how physical mobility and economic independence alter the social relations of dagongmei in their pursuit of dating and potential spouses across the rural-urban divide. The separations of dagongmei from patriarchal families empower them, but their legally classified rural citizenship and their lack of cultural and social capital constrain their aspirations. To closely examine how individual agency interacts with familial control and societal constraints, I conduct in-depth interviews with dagongmei, applying feminist standpoint theory, to hear their experiences concerning the social processes of mate selection. By situating marriage as a dynamic decision-making process, I identify three subgroups of women: independent seekers, resigned negotiators, and tradition reformers. My overall conclusion is that young rural women are empowered by their migration to pursue major life goals such as marriage, but traditional gender ideology still operates to confine their roles as daughters and wives in a transitional society with competing capitalist and socialist characteristics. / text