Factors Affecting Chinese Women's Employment and Related Policy Discussion: After the Reform and Opening Up

Abstract

China used to have a rising number of female employees. Since the reform and opening up, the operation of China's labor market is no longer the same as before, which reflects the characteristics of the decline of female employment. Female employment rate is of great significance in the study of public economics. This paper discusses the reasons for the change of women's employment rate from the two dimensions of labor market conditions and social values, and provides corresponding insights on how to improve women's employment: After the reform and opening up, the family division of labor under the revived traditional culture and the profit-making nature of the market have a common impact on the subjects including companies and individual female employees, the lack of policy-oriented markets cannot prevent the intensification of the continuous decline in women's employment. From the perspective of public economics, the research on the female employment rate in China's labor market provides us with many useful lessons.