Female labor force participation in urban and rural China

The objective of this study is to examine female labor force participation and its determinants in rural and urban China. The sociological literature has demonstrated that participation tends to increase in urban and industrialized places where women have higher levels of education and fewer childre...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inRural sociology Vol. 56; no. 1
Main Authors Barrett, R.E. (University of Illinois, Chicago, Chicago, IL), Bridges, W.P, Semyonov, M, Gao, X
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published 01.04.1991
Subjects
CHINA
CHINE
CONCIENCIA SOCIAL
CONSCIENCE SOCIALE
ECOLOGIA HUMANA
ECOLOGIE HUMAINE
FEMME
MAIN D'OEUVRE
MAIN D'OEUVRE FEMININE
MANO DE OBRA
MANO DE OBRA FEMENINA
MODERNISATION
MODERNIZACION
MUJERES
RELACIONES CAMPO CIUDAD
RELATION VILLE CAMPAGNE
TEORIAS ECONOMICAS
THEORIE ECONOMIQUE
ZONAS RURALES
ZONAS URBANAS
ZONE RURALE
ZONE URBAINE
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Summary:The objective of this study is to examine female labor force participation and its determinants in rural and urban China. The sociological literature has demonstrated that participation tends to increase in urban and industrialized places where women have higher levels of education and fewer children, where more workers are engaged in service pursuits, and where family structure is less traditional. With the use of data on counties and cites (N = 2,377) from the 1-percent sample of the 1982 census of the People's Republic of China, it was found that female labor force participation is likely to rise in areas with increased agricultural employment, educational levels, proportion of female-headed households, and higher male-to-female sex ratios. Both the size of the service sector and the fertility rate had negligible effects on female labor force participation. Although, on average, rural places have slightly higher levels of female labor force participation, when other variables are controlled, urban places have a higher rate of female particiption. In addition, the findings suggest that market factors (i.e., education) are more likely to determine the rate of female labor force participation in urban areas; whereas demographic and social factors (i.e., sex ratio and household structure) play a more important role in explaining the female labor force participation in rural counties
Bibliography:E50
E12
9127904
ISSN:0036-0112
1549-0831
DOI:10.1111/j.1549-0831.1991.tb00424.x