Intercity variation in gender inequalities in China: Analysis of a 1995 national survey

Recent research portrays a mixed picture of the impact of post-1978 economic reforms on gender inequality in China. We analyze a 1995 national survey of urban China (10,967 individuals in 55 cities) and city-level data compiled from Chinese statistical yearbooks to show intercity covariations between an index of marketization and a set of indicators of gender inequality in the labor markets. Our analysis shows gender gaps in human capital, political capital, labor market placement, and work earnings. Most of these gender inequalities remain constant across cities of varying degrees of product, labor, and capital marketization. To the extent that the amount of gender inequality is correlated with marketization, this association is a non-monotonic one, indicating a nonlinear, accumulative marketization process. Major changes have taken place in the most marketized cities, where the gender disparity in affiliation with the state sector has diminished and gender-based occupational segregation has been on the rise.