ILPC 2027

Women’s outcomes during China’s economic transformation have been largely neglected in the literature. Yet the scale and pace of change in China has undoubtedly brought about fundamental changes to the Chinese economy and society. In the development literature, considerable evidence has shown that growth does not necessarily enhance women’s position in society. This article explores the impact of China’s rapid growth and increasingly important place in global supply chain trade on women’s occupational status and educational attainment. The position of women is evaluated both in absolute terms and relative to men. Two empirical approaches are taken. The first approach consists of province level comparative case studies between Guangdong and Fujian, the two coastal provinces chosen by the central government to pilot first the policy of opening to FDI and export processing industries, and on the other hand Hunan and Hebei which had similar starting conditions but were not initially open to trade. The comparison shows that women’s educational attainment improved in all four provinces but was much more pronounced in Guangdong and Fujian. Similarly, women’s occupational status improved more in the provinces more exposed to trade. In the second approach we constructed province level panel data from four waves of the population census (1990, 1995, 2000 and 2010) and provincial statistical yearbooks. Province level panel data regression yields a positive average impact of global supply chain trade expansion on the proportion of both men and women working in higher status occupations, that is occupational upgrading has taken place. Trade expansion also increases female employment in manufacturing relative to men. Migration requires a special focus. Migrant workers in Guangdong and Fujian provinces were concentrated in two sectors, manufacturing (classified as production and related) and sales and services. These two provinces together accounted for 87-90% of total migrant workers in 2000 and about 85% by 2010. In Guangdong, about 11% of women with local residence status were working in skilled and management occupations in 2010, whereas only 6.5% of female migrants were in these occupations. On the other hand, over 61% female migrants were working in manufacturing, but only 36% of local female employees were in manufacturing jobs in Guangdong. A similar pattern of heavy concentration of female migrants in low-skilled jobs in comparison with their local female counterparts is also observed in Fujian province, the second largest migrant destination.