Widening inequality: The evolution of the motherhood penalty in China (1989–2015)

IF 1.4 4区社会学 Q2 SOCIOLOGY

社会 Pub Date : 2022-10-01 DOI:10.1177/2057150X221129343

Chao Shen

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引用次数: 3

Abstract

The motherhood penalty is an important issue in the field of family and gender inequality research. China has experienced rapid economic growth and drastic social change in recent decades, but existing studies fail to provide an overview of changes in the effect of the motherhood penalty during this period. This article uses data from the China Health and Nutrition Survey from 1989 to 2015 and applies a multi-layer mixed-effects model to study the severity of the motherhood penalty and the various mechanisms affecting it over that period. This study shows the following: (a) childbirth has a negative impact on women's wages and the severity of this impact continues to increase, showing that the effect of the motherhood penalty has become harsher over time; (b) although the motherhood penalty was initially lower for single mothers than for married ones, it has increased for both groups of women over the period and the rate of growth has been much faster for single mothers and, thus, the difference between the two groups in terms of the effect of the motherhood penalty has narrowed gradually over the period; (c) the long-term effect of the motherhood penalty is normally less pronounced than the short-term effect, but the long-term effect has grown at a much quicker rate over recent years compared with the short-term effect, and in more recent years these two effects are almost the same; (d) the higher the education level of women, the lower the effect of the motherhood penalty, but as the effect of the penalty has intensified over the period of study, the difference across different education levels has decreased; and (e) the effect of the motherhood penalty on female employees in the non-state sector is greater than that on female employees in the state sector, and the effect of the motherhood penalty on female employees in the non-state sector has increased rapidly, while the change has remained slow in the state sector, resulting in a widening gap between the two sectors. This study shows that the dramatic social and economic change in recent decades has subjected women to greater and greater maternal responsibilities but has afforded them disproportionately fewer benefits in relation to economic development.

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不断扩大的不平等:中国母亲惩罚的演变(1989-2015)

母亲惩罚是家庭与性别不平等研究领域的一个重要问题。近几十年来，中国经历了快速的经济增长和剧烈的社会变革，但现有的研究未能对这一时期母亲惩罚的影响变化提供一个概述。本文利用1989 - 2015年中国健康与营养调查数据，运用多层混合效应模型研究了母亲惩罚的严重程度及其影响机制。这项研究表明以下情况:(a)生育对妇女的工资有负面影响，而且这种影响的严重程度继续增加，表明随着时间的推移，作为母亲的惩罚的影响越来越严重;(b)虽然单亲母亲的母性惩罚最初比已婚母亲低，但在此期间，两类妇女的母性惩罚都有所增加，单亲母亲的增长速度要快得多，因此，这两类妇女在母性惩罚的影响方面的差异在此期间逐渐缩小;(三)为人母刑罚的长期影响通常不如短期影响明显，但长期影响近年的增长速度远快于短期影响，而近年这两项影响几乎相同;(d)妇女受教育程度越高，母性惩罚的影响越低，但随着受教育程度的提高，不同受教育程度之间的差异逐渐减小;(e)母性惩罚对非国有部门女性雇员的影响大于对国有部门女性雇员的影响，并且母性惩罚对非国有部门女性雇员的影响迅速增加，而国有部门的变化仍然缓慢，导致两部门之间的差距不断扩大。这项研究表明，近几十年来剧烈的社会和经济变化使妇女承担了越来越多的母性责任，但在经济发展方面给予她们的好处却少得不成比例。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

社会 Social Sciences-Social Sciences (all)

CiteScore

1.70

自引率

0.00%

发文量

6799

期刊介绍： The Chinese Journal of Sociology is a peer reviewed, international journal with the following standards: 1. The purpose of the Journal is to publish (in the English language) articles, reviews and scholarly comment which have been judged worthy of publication by appropriate specialists and accepted by the University on studies relating to sociology. 2. The Journal will be international in the sense that it will seek, wherever possible, to publish material from authors with an international reputation and articles that are of interest to an international audience. 3. In pursuit of the above the journal shall: (i) draw on and include high quality work from the international community . The Journal shall include work representing the major areas of interest in sociology. (ii) avoid bias in favour of the interests of particular schools or directions of research or particular political or narrow disciplinary objectives to the exclusion of others; (iii) ensure that articles are written in a terminology and style which makes them intelligible, not merely within the context of a particular discipline or abstract mode, but across the domain of relevant disciplines.