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What's Holding Women Back?

Visualizing Gender Gap in Chinese Families

China's rapid development in the past 30 years has enabled it to raise living standards and provide economic opportunities for its citizen, women in China have made significant progress in recent decades, especially the increase of life expectancy and literacy rates. However, this process has yielded uneven gains between men and women. The income gap between urban male and female workers increased from 15 percent in 1990 to 20 percent in 2020.

Economic opportunities for women in China

China’s economic growth has improved overall prosperity, but Chinese women have benefited less from these gains. With the China Family Panel Studies(CFPS) data, I investigated incomes of more than 3000 people between 30 and 35 years old, with their gender, the income of their parents. This enormous amount of figures provided a fine-grained picture of the unequal life opportunities in the Chinese families. If we divide their original family into three groups by income, as below, it becomes clear how hereditary poverty can be.

A thousand women and men that grew up in poor family and the income level at their 30s

Source: China Family Panel Studies(CFPS) Adult and Family Economy Datasets(2010 & 2018)
Note: Income level from nation bureau of statistics, using urban-rural income ratio as 2.5

How big is the parenthood penalty for mothers?

Women are the predominant caregivers of children. Once she has a child, she’s far less likely to travel for work or work regular overtime. Women are also far more likely to work part time once they have children, and relatively few women ramp back up to their prior pay rate once they do go back to full time. They are less likely to be promoted, too, because of the downshifted career. Women can be docked professionally for taking time off when children are sick or when juggling childcare. They may have the job, but are not getting the promotion. That hurts lifetime earnings.

Employment Before First Birth

Employed Mother Employed Father Unemployed

Source: China Family Panel Studies(CFPS) Adult and Family Roster Datasets
Note: Data collected with 1000 women and men who had their first child between 2010 to 2018
More than half of mothers in the survey lost the job at first year, especially for the those who got lower education, only 28% middle-school educated women kept their jobs
Half unemployed mothers chose to take care of family members instead of working
60% educated mothers are getting their job back at the second year, but some women keep losing jobs

Post-birth Income Gap

Annual income difference of after first birth

Income gap between women and men increased dramatically after the first birth, especially a huge impact on lower level educated mothers
On the other hand, higher educated women, in different areas, was also witnessed a large income gap, mothers in urban area more likely to bounce back more quickly, but in rural area, mothers were likely to be hit harder by the penalty

The Ignored Housework

Women’s engagement in paid work in China is relatively higher than elsewhere in the world, yet women bear a disproportionate share of unpaid work. Especially in rural China, there has been a worsening of household gender inequality with intensified pressure for women to play dual roles as market income earners and caregivers.

China is a country deeply influenced by traditional gender attitudes, and although China has achieved a huge economic success through rapid modernization, traditional gender roles have not fundamentally changed. In addition, the lack of policies to protect women in work and family life, coupled with an underdeveloped market for childcare services, have combined to make it necessary for Chinese women to balance their traditional family responsibilities with their increasing labor market participation.