Study on Female Industrial Structure and Gender Segregation of China in the New Century

Abstract

In the first decade of the 21st century, China has not only achieved stable and rapid economic development, but also made new progresses in industrial restructuring. The modern service industry and emerging strategic industries have provided more employment opportunities for laborers including women.

Purpose– The purpose of this article is to analyze the gender segregation status and trend in the industry of China in the new century.

Data/Methodology– The research includes items of female industrial structure, gender segregation. Data come from 29696 valid respondents by the Third Survey of Chinese Women's Social Status questionnaire survey which was jointly organized by the All China Women's Federation and the National Bureau of Statistics starting on December 1, 2010. The Methodologies applied in this paper are descriptive statistics and binary logistic regression.

Findings– China's employment women are mainly concentrated in the lower income levels and lower social security industries in 2010. Among the monopoly industries, 80 percent of them are male which indicates that women can share only a small amount of social development outcomes. Compared with the status of 10 years ago, China's employment industry structure has changed as follows. Firstly, the female industry structure presents polarization trend. The proportion of women in the 10 monopolies declined, and the proportion of women in modern service industry improved. Secondly, the proportion of men in some traditional industries improved. Last but not least, age and education have significantly statistical effects on the opportunities of modern service industries' employment.

Originality/Value– This research studied the gender segregation status and trend in the industry of China in the new century. The results of this research provide empirical evidence that the ten monopolies gender segregation status of China is more serious than 10 years ago. Age and education of female have significantly statistical effects on the opportunities of modern service industries' employment. That is to say, well-educated young women have more opportunities to work in modern service industries.