Gender Differences And Evolution In Education,Employment And Income (2006-2015)

Since the reform and opening up,great changes have taken place in the mode of gender difference in Chinese society.Over time,the gender gap in access to education has narrowed and women's participation in the labor market has increased.However,education and employment,as important factors affecting income,do not weaken the gender difference in income.Most studies prove that the income gap between women and men still exists and even shows a growing trend.There seems to be a contradiction between logical reasoning and empirical reality.This paper attempts to explain this contradiction.In the author's opinion,in order to explore the gender difference or inequality pattern in China's society in the transition period,we should not ignore the special structure and characteristics of China's labor market in the transition period--the sectoral division within and outside the system caused by the ownership reform,except for the analysis of typical factors such as education,occupation and income to obtain social and economic status.This article is based on "the Chinese general social survey"(CGSS)in 2006 and 2015,discusses in the past decade China's gender inequality in education,employment,income,three important social change trend of hierarchical structure,and introduces dual segmentation of labor market structure of income changes in sex differences at the analysis of the internal logic to make.The study found that:First,consistent with the findings of most existing studies,the gender gap in the overall educational attainment of urban and rural residents in China has been narrowing from 2006 to 2015.Secondly,the labor participation rate of urban women has significantly increased,and the gender difference in labor participation has decreased.However,the positive effect of human capital on individual labor participation has gradually decreased.The influence of marriage and the number of children on female employment has increased.Family status is negatively correlated with women's labor participation,and the poorer the family economic status,the more likely women are to participate in the labor market,and vice versa.This shows that the main reason for the increase of urban women's participation in the labor market is that more and more women from lower-class families enter or return to the labor market due to family economic pressure.Third,the gender gap in the overall income of urban employees is on the rise,but it is differentiated in different sectors:the gender gap in income within the system is gradually disappearing,while the gender gap in income outside the system is constantly widening.Fourthly,there are institutional differences in the return of human capital.The return of human capital within the system increases while that outside the system decreases.Moreover,the impact of gender discrimination outside the system on income is further expanded.The results of this study show that the change of gender inequality is not only a simple numerical increase or decrease,it contains a complex,hierarchical structure.In particular,in the context of market transformation,only when the specific attributes of the labor market are closely related and the dual division structure of institutions or departments and the macro institutional environment are taken into consideration,can the changing trend of gender inequality be fully understood.