Marketization, occupational segregation, and gender earnings inequality in urban China

2017 ◽  
Vol 65 ◽  
pp. 96-111 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guangye He ◽  
Xiaogang Wu
2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 304-324
Author(s):  
Moshe Semyonov

This paper focuses on the relations between development and gender disparities in labor market outcomes in the era of globalization. Within a cross-national comparative framework, the article examines the relations between development and globalization and three aspects of gender-linked disparities (women's labor force participation, gender occupational differentiation, and gender pay gap) at two time points: 1990 and 2015. The data reveal patterns in the relationship between development, globalization, and each dimension of gender inequality. First, development but not globalization tends to increase women's labor force participation. Second, development is likely to reduce gender occupational segregation. But the effect is indirect; it is transmitted via the increased number of economically active women. Third, less gender occupational segregation does not necessarily mean greater occupational equality; high female labor force participation is likely to reduce women's likelihood of employment in high-status professional and managerial occupations. Fourth, gender occupational inequality appears to be one of the sources of a country's gender pay gap; the pay disparity between men and women tends to be greater in countries where gender occupational inequality is high. A model that summarizes the complex relations among development, globalization, and the various dimensions of gender-linked economic activity and inequality is proposed and discussed.


Social Forces ◽  
2003 ◽  
Vol 81 (4) ◽  
pp. 1107-1145 ◽  
Author(s):  
X. Shu ◽  
Y. Bian

2018 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 726-746 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guangye He ◽  
Xiaogang Wu

This article examines the differential impacts of marketisation and economic development on gender earnings inequality in reform-era urban China. Based on data from the 2005 population mini-census with prefecture-level statistics, we distinguish the effect of economic development from that of marketisation on the gender earnings gap. Multi-level analyses reveal that marketisation and economic development have affected gender inequality in different ways: whereas market forces have exacerbated gender earnings inequality, economic development has reduced it. Overall, marketisation appears to be the main driver of the increase in gender earnings inequality in urban China. Implications for policies promoting gender equality in China are discussed.


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