The Influence Of Child Care Public Services On The Rural Women’s Working Hours

The traditional pattern of family labor division and gender concept lead rural women to face the double pressure of labor participation and child care.Nowadays,the service quality of child care non-public services in rural areas are uneven,and the price is relatively high,many rural families are unable to buy.Rural women have to reduce their working hours to take care of the children in their families.So they can not get relatively equal employment opportunities.They urgently need inclusive and perfect child care public services to ease their pressure.However,the supply of child care public institutions are insufficient,and the development of child care public services can not keep up with the practical demand,which to a certain extent weakens the enthusiasm of their labor participation.The existing literature usually has a single perspective and rarely comprehensively explores the impact of child care public services on rural women’s working hours.Based on the CHNS data from 2011 to 2015 and adopting DID,the article investigates the influence of child care public services to rural women’s working hours whose children under six years old,and compares the average working hours of other adult women in their families.The empirical results show that:(1)child care public services have a significant positive impact on working hours of the mothers of rural children.Its development can not keep up with the current needs,which has hit their enthusiasm of labor force participation.(2)The imbalance of the development level in the different regions makes the impacts of childcare public services on working hours of the mothers of rural children and have regional differences.(3)The cumulative annual working hours of other women in rural families are higher than the mothers of rural children,agricultural working hours are higher,and there is a significant difference between the Eastern regions and Western regions.Before 50 years old,they mainly participate non-agricultural employment.After 50 years old,they mainly participate agricultural employment.Based on the above conclusions,in order to enhance the accessibility of child care public services helps ease the contradiction between rural women raising children and their labor force participation,motivating the enthusiasm of working,promoting gender equality,unleashing the economic potential of the rural economy which help the strategy of rural revitalization.This paper puts forward the following countermeasures and suggestions:the government should do a lot of positive publicity and guidance;form a Inclusive improvement public service system for Rural Childcare as soon as possible;implement regional differentiation strategy and build experimental child care institutions in rural areas.