Stark Choices: Work-Family Tradeoffs among Migrant Women and Men in Urban China

Zhao, Minyuan; Hannum, Emily

doi:10.1080/21620555.2019.1635879

Cited by 11 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 52 publications

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“…This finding largely corresponds to what previous research has found (Zhao and Hannum, 2019). However, Zhao and Hannum (2019) also found a monthly income premium for migrant mothers-without-children compared to non-mothers, which we argue is likely due to the long working hours of mothers-without-children (see the supplementary analysis section).…”

Section: Average Effects Of Motherhood Status On Hourly Earningssupporting

confidence: 90%

“…Third, for migrant mothers who are living with children at their destinations, the actual childrearing responsibility may further exacerbate their earnings challenges on top of the disadvantages of motherhood identity per se and work interruptions. Recent research has documented that internal migrant mothers changed their work conditions when migrating with children, in response to the increased childcare responsibility (Peng, 2018), and they also earned a lower monthly wage compared to childless migrant women, while such a monthly wage loss was not found for migrant mothers who leave their children behind (Zhao and Hannum, 2019). In this study, we focus on hourly earnings.…”

Section: Theoretical Background 421 the Motherhood Penaltymentioning

confidence: 97%

“…Regarding the former variables, co-resident spouse is a dichotomous variable pertaining to whether the husband is living in the same household, and co-resident parents (-in-law) is a dichotomous variable regarding whether any parent or parent-in-law is in the household. In terms of the other three variables, following Zhao and Hannum (2019), first, part-time is a dichotomous variable indicating whether last week's working hours were under 40. Second, self-employment is a dichotomous variable that differentiates the respondent's self-employed business from other types of employment.…”

Section: Key Independent Variablesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Women and work in contemporary China. The effect of market transition on women's employment, earnings, and status attainment

Kong¹

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Xiangqi was born in 1963, two years after the Great Famine, in a Chinese village. She lived in a rural house with her parents and her younger brother. From a young age, she shared household chores with her mother. Every day, she woke up before the sunrise, fed the pigs and the chicken, made breakfast, and prepared for school. Growing up, she remembers constantly being hungry and looking for things to eat. After primary school, she was accepted into a township-level secondary school and then a high school, where she was among the top students.In 1980, three years after the restoration of China's higher education system, Xiangqi took the national college entrance exam. Only one student from her school passed the exam; she did not. Therefore, she started to work. As a high school graduate, she was assigned to a collectively owned department store in town working as a clerk. Ten years later, when she was 27, she got married, and one year later, her daughter was born. The department store provided Xiangqi and her family a small one-bedroom apartment. She took care of the child mostly by herself while working full-time, and it was challenging.Her husband was rarely home; he was busy riding his motorcycle from place to place, discussing business with other people. When her child was nine, the family purchased an apartment in the city. In 2001, they moved to the city and transferred her child to a better school there. Shortly thereafter, her husband and she discussed whether she should stop working. Xiangqi felt that her child needed care, that the department store was not well run, and that she would be laid off soon. She applied for early retirement with no compensation and stopped working. The department store disappeared a few years after they moved, as did the small one-bedroom apartment.Xiangqi is my mother. Her life trajectory resembles what many Chinese women have experienced. Table 1.1 provides an overview of important historical events that have occurred in China. In 1949, the People's Republic of China was established. The era after the establishment of China can be divided into a period of high socialism and a period of reform. The period of high socialism was between 1949 and 1977, when all resources, such as land and labor, were organized and redistributed by the government. All Socialist countries, including China, interpreted women's emancipation in the same way, according to Marxism. Women's work outside of the household was thought to be essential to their liberation. Therefore, the state made great efforts to ensure gender equality in the public sphere in China. For example, policies on labor rights and "equal work, equal pay" were implemented, and gender equality propaganda was widespread. Infrastructures, such as public childcare facilities, were built to enable women to work full-time. Both men and women were assigned to jobs, and differences in wages and wealth among people were minimal. As a consequence, the labor force participation rate of women in China, as well 2 Throughout this dissertation, ...

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Section: Average Effects Of Motherhood Status On Hourly Earningssupporting

confidence: 90%

Section: Theoretical Background 421 the Motherhood Penaltymentioning

confidence: 97%

Section: Key Independent Variablesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Women and work in contemporary China. The effect of market transition on women's employment, earnings, and status attainment

Kong¹

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“…To test our hypotheses, we used data from the China Migrants Dynamic Survey (CMDS). This cross‐sectional survey was commissioned by the National Health Commission of China and based on a stratified three‐stage sampling design, covering 31 provinces, provincial‐level autonomous regions and municipalities (Min et al, 2016; Zhao & Hannum, 2019). In our analyses, we included both nonagricultural and agricultural hukou migrants.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Regulations in the era of new‐type urbanisation and migrant workers' settlement intentions: The case of Beijing

Sheng

Zhao

2020

Population Space and Place

Self Cite

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The most important determinant of migration decisions across the globe is economic gain, and attempts to regulate access to a better life have been met with contention. Most previous studies debate on whether regulations successfully restrict the numbers of migrants. However, more recent work points to their focus on migrant selection. Because the New‐type Urbanisation Plan was introduced in 2014, China's mega‐cities (populations of 10 million or more) have begun limiting migrants by job skills. For example, cities with upgraded industrial structures are adopting regulations that support the attraction and retention of high‐skilled migrants while allowing them to refuse an influx of low‐skilled workers. What impact have such regulations had on migration? This article explores how these targeted regulations shape migrant workers' long‐term (i.e., 5 years or more) settlement intentions in the mega‐city of Beijing. Drawing on the China Migrants Dynamic Survey data—commissioned by the National Health Commission and collected in 2012, 2014 and 2017—we find that the proportion of migrants planning to remain in Beijing long term has dropped substantially. While migrants continue to leave small hometowns assuming they will be paid more for their work in mega‐cities such as Beijing, new regulations have lessened the effects of the income differentials between hometowns and the host city. Such a decline in influence is most pronounced among migrant workers in traditional industries (e.g., manufacturing, construction and retail) who are targeted by the regulations.

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“…In the two-sphere framework, we see the changes as an increase in separation of the private and public spheres and an escalation of work-family conflicts that leave all childcare to the family, particularly to women (Cook and Dong 2011;Zuo and Jiang 2009). These circumstances only exacerbate the disadvantage to women in the labor market (Hughes and Maurer-Fazio 2002;Ji et al 2017;Qian and Jin 2018;Sun and Chen 2017;Zhao and Hannum 2019). By adopting this conceptual framework, we provide a dynamic perspective on the negative impact of marriage and childbearing on women's careers in midst of China's market transition.…”

Section: Work Units Marketization and Women's Changing Work-family Balance In China: Research Hypothesesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

He¹,

2021

DemRes

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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.

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Stark Choices: Work-Family Tradeoffs among Migrant Women and Men in Urban China

Cited by 11 publications

References 52 publications

Women and work in contemporary China. The effect of market transition on women's employment, earnings, and status attainment

Women and work in contemporary China. The effect of market transition on women's employment, earnings, and status attainment

Regulations in the era of new‐type urbanisation and migrant workers' settlement intentions: The case of Beijing

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

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