Double Bane or Double Boon? The Effects of Gender and the Household Registration System (hukou) on Female Migrant Workers' Employment Opportunities and Earnings in Contemporary Urban China

There are several diverse types of employment discrimination in China's labour market. Two of the most significant are differentials in employment opportunity and differentials in earnings by gender and household registration system (hukou). Thus, female migrant workers are doubly disadvantaged as victims of discrimination against both rural people and women. This thesis uses mixed research methods (both quantitative and qualitative approaches) to explore four questions related to this dual disadvantage: First, in the public sphere, are those with higher socioeconomic status (i.e., urbanites in China) willing to allow equal opportunities and rights for female migrant workers?1 Second, in the labour market, is there any evidence to demonstrate that gender and household registration system interact to shape female migrant workers' employment opportunities and earnings? Third, still in the labour market, if a significant interaction is found between hukou and gender, the female migrant worker group will be compared to the members of three other groups: male migrant workers, urban males, and urban females. The following question will then be investigated: Do female migrant workers experience double2 (additive assumptions), less than double or more than double (intersectional assumptions) jeopardy in employment discrimination (opportunities and earnings) in 2003 and in 2006? Last, what are the trends in employment discrimination against this group over time? In an exploration of these four questions, this thesis offers theoretical, methodological and practical contributions to an understanding of female migrant workers' experiences in urban China. It is found that Chinese urbanites indeed do not want to share social goods, attributes and services with female migrant workers. This hostility and intolerance in the public sphere have affected female migrant workers' access to employment opportunities and earnings. In most cases, they have suffered more than double jeopardy with respect to employment opportunities and earnings. The trends in these two types of employment discrimination are mixed. Employment discrimination against these female migrant workers both in public sphere and in the labour market not only points to the social exclusion based on ascribed features (i.e., hukou and gender), but also reveals the nature of China's transitional economies that involve both institutional and socio-cultural barriers to social equality.;Keywords: female migrant workers, gender, hukou, employment discrimination.;1 My published co-authored paper entitled ‘Unfinished Promise: Socioeconomic Status and Attitude toward Equality for Migrant Workers in Urban China' (Prairie Metropolis Centre Working Paper Series) has discussed a similar topic, that is, do those with higher socioeconomic status (i.e., Urbanites in China) have any inclination to create equal opportunities and rights for the migrant worker group as a whole? Some of the material has been previously published or referred to in my other papers. Considering this thesis itself is expected to be an original contribution, the text of the material has been reworded with references, or quoted and cited directly from my own papers and included in the bibliography.;2 The reason for relating female migrant workers to double jeopardy is that they have double seemingly marginalized social categories of identity of being both female and rural people.