Tongxuan Gao, Virginia Hernanz Martín and Suárez Gálvez Cristina, researchers at the Department of Economics of the Universidad de Alcalá, Spain highlight depressing trends in female employment in China.
In 2016 it became possible for all women in China to have a second child (ethnic minorities were already excluded from the one child policy and rural women had been allowed a second if the first was a girl). Initially this produced a mini baby boom.
From this natural experiment it was possible to analyze what the impact of this added family responsibility was on women’s position in the working population, particularly that of their relative incomes.
Before we get there the paper noted that since the beginning of China’s Reform and Opening Up in 1978 women’s participation in the labor force had been steadily declining. A trend that accelerated in the early 2000’s.
Noted also is the most recent data showing that after the mini spurt following the 2016 relaxation recent trends in fertility have been down, despite China enacting a 3-child policy.
To the main issue, women in China who have children suffer a penalty at work in terms of pay and promotion. Moreover, extra children exacerbate the problem. The paper goes into the mechanisms that help to explain this with one of the biggest (and this is the case in studies the world over) being the lack of ability to participate at work to the same extent as male colleagues.
No surprise then with the evidence in front of them working women are choosing the low or no-children option. Assuming government’s are interested in fixing this state of affairs money will be required. Some provinces in China have taken the initiative of offering longer maternity and paternity leaves but this (IMHO) isn’t going to fix much.
If China’s government’s (and others around the world facing similar dynamics) want more children they must either force employers to pay women more for less work, or make up the difference themselves at the same time as providing more child care options for the many for whom grandparents may not be available to pick up the slack.
My concluding two-pennyworth. This global issue is solvable if governments are prepared to take the lead in funding a solution. Berating employers or offering longer leave won’t convince (because it clearly hasn’t/isn’t) women to change their minds about having children.
Unless women can be guaranteed they’re not going to suffer a salary/position downgrade as a result of a decision to have a family no change to the status quo can reasonably be expected. I think it’s that simple.
You’ll find the paper in full via this link Gender Discrimination in Employment of Chinese Women.
Happy Sunday.