Research On The Impact Of Family On The Gender Wage Gap In Urban China

Since the reform and opening up of China,women have been raised greatly in education and professional skills,but the gender wage gap in the urban labor market has widened,and this phenomenon has brought the attention of many scholars.There have been many domesticstudies to explain gender wage gap from traditional perspectives,such as gender discrimination,occupational gender segregation,or human capital,socialization and social network differences.In recent years,foreign scholars have turned the focus of gender research into the family field.Though there is great changes in social and economic environment,families still retain the greatest influence on the whole system.The difference between men and women in household production affects their performance and results in the labor market.The housework and child care brought by marriage and childbirth are two important aspects,whichwomen tend to increase their input after giving birth.Domestic academic research on this field is not sufficient.There are quite a few studies on gender wage gap from traditional perspectives of labor market,and many studies on housework,child care or family division.But there is not much research on the relationship between the two.The idea of this paper is to figure out this relationship,explore the affects of household production on the root and causes of gender wage gap in labor market,which could provide a useful basis for more effective measures to achieve gender equality.This study examines the effect of the family division of labor on the gender wage gap.It includes the following research topics:(1)The changes in labor participation,occupation status and work time of different genders under the transition of economics and labor market system;(2)The effect of marriage and childbirthon the gender wage gap;(3)The proportion of housework time between husband and wife,and the impact on the gender wage gap;(4)The impact of child bearingand raising by grandparentson the gender wage gap.The innovation of this paper includes:(1)A new research perspective.Examining the different effects of marriage and childbirth on male and female wage decisions,then further research on the impact of differences in household duties and child care on the gender wage gap,in order to present the various aspects of the family mechanism that affect wages.(2)A new research object.On the basis of previous studies on individual,this paper takes further attention in double income families,household duties and raising pattern.(3)A new research method.The relative values of housework from double income families were included in the wage equation,to investigate the differences among groups.The core variables,instrumental variables,and research paths are improved.In the empirical study on the impact of child care on gender wage gap,the impact of child bearingand raising by grandparents are integrated into the wage equation,to investigate the differences among groups.Women are facing the conflict between heavy family responsibilities and occupational stress.It causes not only the loss of women’s economic and health benefits,but also causes the loss of children’s welfare,the intergenerational transmission of poverty and other forms of social inequality.The low birth rate caused by this problem would make the "decreases" and "aging" of the population more acute,and it would be an obstacle to the health of economy.Social and economic development does not necessarily lead to gender equality,which requires us to study more broadly about families and gender wage gap,to take a deeper understand of the trouble of women in balancing family and job in the current labor market,in order to create better access to population bonuses and development of potential female labor forces.