This paper aims to demonstrate that China’s land policy and land law are altered in social interactions between different actors. Such social processes have led to the gendering of rural land tenure practices, but also a highly heterogeneous situation with regard to land tenure. This paper aims to demonstrate that the combined effect of marital relations, kinship, social network and low political representation of women in the community often results in the deprivation of women’s land rights and many women are becoming landless. However, our field research shows that there are also cases where women are able to get access