Women’s Economic Empowerment in China: Pathways and challenges

1. Women’s Economic Empowerment in China: Pathways and challenges Xiao-yuan Dong New Delhi Workshop November 11-12, 2013

2. Comparative Strengths and Common Challenges • Devaki Jain: Chinese women have apparently fared better than their sisters in India in terms of health, education and economic opportunities, whereas women in India are more active politically and have exerted a greater influence in the policy process than do women in China. • How can women in the two countries get both and move forward both economically and politically? • What can we learn from each other? And what common challenges do we face for achieving gender equality?

3. Economic participation and opportunity Source: World Economic Forum Gender Gap Index 2012

4. Education and health Source: World Economic Forum gender Gap Index 2012

5. Political empowerment In India, a 33-percent quota was set for women to lead the village councils in the 1990s and the quota is now raised to 50 percent. In China, women will account for 30 percent of the village committee members and 10 percent of the village leaders by 2020, according to China’s Women Development Program (2010-2020).

6. Sex discrimination against women is still pervasive in both countries Source: World Values Survey Databank

7. Gender gap in survival and “missing women”

8. Consequences of sex imbalance: Violence against women, spread of STDs Source: : U.S. Census Bureau, International Database.

9. Chinese women’s economic empowerment: pathways and challenges • The Socialist Legacy • During Maoist era, the labor system was modeled in accordance with the theory of Marx that social production is an integrated process of the production of material products and the reproduction of human being themselves. • The socialist labor system minimized the market “penalties” that women had to endure for their reproductive role. • The socialist legacy fundamentally transformed traditional gender relations and created favorable initial conditions for post-reform economic take-off. • However, the centrally planned system created huge inefficiencies and redundancy and state supports were limited to urban workers. • At the end of 1970s, the poverty rate in China was much higher than that in India.

10. Poverty and Income inequality in China and India Source: World Bank Povalnet

11. Economic transition (1978 onward): • Shared poverty is not a characteristics of socialism. • China is in the primary stage of socialism. The priority: Promote economic growth and improving people’s livelihood (发展经济，改善民生） The means: Economic reforms and opening up to foreign trade and investment • The long-term goals: • Quadruple GDP by 2000 • Become a middle-income country by 2020 (the 100th anniversary of the CCP) • Become a developed country by 2050 (the 100th anniversary of the PRC)

12. 1978 – 1991: gradualist phase - Replace the commune system by the household responsibility system and develop township-village enterprises (TVEs) • Decentralized economic decision making and provide incentives to managers and workers of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) • Set special economic zones • 1992-2002: radical phrase • “Grasp the large and let go of the small” • Privatization of TVEs - Public-sector restructuring, letting go of 25 million workers • Join the WTO in December 2001 • The dismantling of local collective- and employers-based social welfare systems led to a reversal of trends in poverty alleviation and a sharp increase of inequalities, including gender inequalities.

13. 2002-2012: Emergence of social policy - Develop a people-centered, harmonious society • Two types of social policies • Reducing inequality - Regional disparity and urban/rural disparity • Increasing social security and labor protection • Minimum income allowance • Medical insurance • Old-age security • Public housing for urban poor • Minimum wages, collective bargaining, and other labor regulations

14. 2002-2012: Emergence of social policy - Develop a people-centered, harmonious society

15. Poverty and Income inequality in China Source: World Bank Povalnet

16. How did Chinese male and female workers fare during 2002-2010? • China joined the WTO in December 2001 and the global financial crisis occurred in 2008. • The data from the Chinese Household Income Project (CHIP) in 2002 and 2010. • The sample covers 26,563 individuals for 2002 and 30, 418 for 2010 from nine provinces in China. • The working age population refers to those aged between 16 and 64.

17. The main findings: • Labor force participation rates increased for both men and women, but faster for women than men. • More women than men shifted from agriculture to services and women’s share in total wage employment in the non-agriculture increased. • The proportion of vulnerable employment in the non-agriculture sector fell for both men and women, again more for women than men. • Real earnings in the non-agriculture more than doubled, growing faster for rural workers than urban workers, faster for men than women. • Working poor rates fell dramatically; transfer-payments became more effective for reducing rural poverty, but remain ineffective for migrant workers. • More women than men are low-paid workers; low pay rates declined dramatically, more for rural workers than urban workers and more for men than women. • Overall, the verdicts are positive, although the challenges to gender equality and women’s empowerment remain.

22. What can we learn from China’s success in the post-WTO-entry period? • Properly managed integration with the global market can help to accelerate the transformation of labor surplus from agriculture to non-agriculture, creating gainful employment for disadvantaged groups. • Policy measures that address non-gender based inequalities can also have a positive effect on gender equality in the labor market. • A declining work-age population also helped to ease the downward pressure on wages. • However, gender-neutral, broad-based development strategies alone are insufficient for eradicating gender inequality in the labor market.

23. The challenges to women’s economic empowerment in China 1. The concept of gender inequality is poorly understood among mainstream economists and policy makers. 2. The value of unpaid care work is still not recognized and there are no proper recognition and support for women’s unpaid care work from the state, their employers, and their spouses. • Public spending on social services is low, even by developing country standards a. Public spending on education as share of GDP: China in 2011 is 3.1%, lower than the median level of 3.4% for LICs and 4.9% for LMICs in early 2000s b. Pre-school enrolment rate (3-6 years): China in 2008: 47% overall, Urban: 75%; Rural: 39.8% Chile in 2006: 75.7%; Mexico in 2008: 93.1%-99.8% ● Enterprises are reluctant to accommodate women’s care giving needs.

24. 3. Traditional patriarchal values become more pervasive in Chinese society. % agree "Men should play a major role in society while women should play a major role at home" in the 2nd and 3rd surveys of Chinese Women's Status in 2000 and 2010

25. Time allocation of working men and women aged between 20 and 49, by sector (hours/week) Source: 2008 China Time Use Survey

26. % rural men and women aged between 18 and 64 are troubled By mental health problems in 2010 Source: The Third Survey of Chinese Women’s Status by ACWF

27. How to reintegrate the care economy with the productive economy in China’s new market economy? Social services and infrastructure Maintaining social fabric and human capital Households Unpaid care Government Firms and markets Consumption and investment commodities