Family status and women’s career mobility during urban China’s economic transition

Abstract

BACKGROUNDIn contrast to the historical experience of Western welfare states, where social and family policies help create more integrated public-private spheres, marketization in China has presented a case of sphere separation. This phenomenon has important implications for the dynamics of gender inequality in economic transition. OBJECTIVEThis article examines how family status is associated with women's career mobility in reform-era urban China and the impact of family on women's career choices across different reform stages. METHODBased on retrospective data from the Chinese General Social Survey (CGSS) in 2008, we adopt discrete-time logit models to examine the effects of marriage and childbearing on women's upward mobility, the risk of labor market exit, and how the effects vary over time. RESULTSChinese women in the workforce are adversely affected by marriage and having dependent children. They are more likely than men to experience (involuntary, in particular) job exit to fulfill their roles as wives and mothers and less likely to move up in the career ladder. This pattern is more prominent as the economic reform proceeds. CONCLUSIONMarketization has adversely affected Chinese women's career outcomes by increasing work-family tension after the work unit (danwei) system and socialist programs that supported working women were scrapped.

Gender and network effects on occupation: a case study of China

“…This is because for these respondents who have lower status, most other positions can offer better pay (Smith, 2000). Apart from this choice, the labor market tends to discriminate against women in regard to recruitment, job assignments and salaries (He and Wu, 2018a, b; Wu, 2019). However, this discrimination is strictly prohibited in government agencies.…”

Gender equality progress in a decade: health, education, and employment

“…Figure 3 shows the trend of changes in the 21st century, the decrease in proportion of young women at work seems controversial to rapid economic growth and increased share of service sectors. Many research findings pointed out that care burden of young children is major obstacle that limited women's ability to participate fully in the market economy, women are more likely to reduce work hours or exit from labor force after having a child, the "motherhood penalty" has contributed to rising gender inequalities in labor force participation, off-farm employment, and income (such as Connelly, et al, 2018;Brussevich et al, 2021), especially during marketization process in the late reform stage (He & Wu, 2021).…”

Introduction to the special collection on family changes and inequality in East Asia

“…Despite its distinctive political structure, family life in a China where marketization is in full swing is similarly shaped by economic and gender contexts. China's intensifying market economy has invoked the traditional gender division of labor under which marriage and motherhood penalties to women's job careers are more evident than in earlier periods of marketization (He and Wu 2021). Although parents living away from their adult children in contemporary China does not necessarily lead to them having lower life satisfaction, it can be particularly harmful for older parents who are more disadvantaged (Chen, Shen, and Ruan 2021).…”

“…The following eight articles of this special collection, titled Family Changes and Inequality in East Asia, share a key interest: how growing economic inequality and labor market uncertainty and stubborn gender-inegalitarian norms and environments have shaped families in East Asia. Collectively, these eight articles address how families in East Asia have evolved against a backdrop of changing economic contexts and persistent gender inequality, among other key forces affecting family life, across a variety of familyrelated outcomes: from singlehood, marriage intentions, and dating (Brinton, Mun, and Hertog 2021;Raymo, Uchikoshi, and Yoda 2021;Yu and Hara 2020), through fertility (Lim 2021), the time use of adolescents and parents with young children (Hertog and Zhou 2021;Park 2021), and women's careers (He and Wu 2021), to intergenerational coresidence and the life satisfaction of older parents (Chen, Shen, and Ruan 2021). Our collection moves beyond focusing on a single event such as marriage or fertility in a short time window to cover different stages of the life course, from singlehood to older parents' living arrangements.…”