While the female labour force participation rate in China is currently above the global average, it has declined in recent decades, and women still face numerous structural challenges in the labour market. What are these barriers, and how can policy alleviate them to boost gender equality?
Editor’s note: This article is the fourth in a series of posts reflecting on how the evidence from VoxDevLits applies to specific contexts, and is published in collaboration with the International Economic Association’s Women in Leadership in Economics initiative. This post explores how evidence on Female Labour Force Participation relates to China.
The female labour force participation rate is a critical indicator of gender equality and economic development. In recent years, with the rapid socio-economic development of China, there has been a growing focus on gender equality. While the female labour force participation rate in China is currently above the global average, women still face numerous structural challenges. This article reviews evidence on the current state of women in the labour market, influencing factors, and policy responses related to female labour force participation in China, aiming to provide empirical evidence for relevant policymaking.
Female labour force participation in China: Overall trends
The overall female labour force participation (LFP) rate in China is above the global average, but has been declining over recent decades. According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics of China (2023), the female labour force participation rate has declined from 73.2% in 1990 to 61.5% in 2022. As of 2024, this rate was 60% according to data from the World Bank (World Bank 2025).
This downward trend is closely related to economic restructuring, changes in fertility policies, and the influence of traditional gender roles. Despite the gradual popularisation of modern gender equality concepts, the traditional notion of "men handle external affairs while women focus on domestic responsibilities" still profoundly influences women's career choices. This perception compels women to take on primary caregiving and household duties, with an average daily household workload of 3.2 hours, 2.8 times that of men (National Bureau of Statistics 2023). Yet empirical studies have also shown that women’s participation in the labour market can increase marital satisfaction (Yu and Liu 2021). The dual roles of Chinese women as both employee and homemaker have been socially accepted, imposing pressure on women to maintain these responsibilities.
Gender differences by region and enterprises in China
There are structural differences across regions and between industries in China. The female LFP rate in urban areas (65.8%) is significantly higher than in rural areas (56.2%). Caring for children has a significant hindering effect on rural married women’s job hunting. Especially for those in low-income families, the employment inhibition is most significant among women aged 20–30 with multiple children (Miao et al. 2023). Introducing a formal care system and improving rural basic education public services could promote more rural women going out to work.
The female LFP shows an uneven distribution by ownership of enterprises: the ratio of female employment is highest in foreign-funded enterprises, followed by private enterprises, and then state-owned enterprises (Zhou et al. 2016). Evidence supports the idea that, due to statistical discrimination from occupational segregation and information asymmetries, enterprises with higher female employment ratios are more likely to offer job opportunities to women. This is because private and foreign-funded enterprises are more likely to select employees for efficiency than be influenced by traditional gender norms.
Motherhood pressures and a lack of childcare services in China
Childbirth has also increased career breaks for women in recent years due to changes in fertility policies. China’s family-planning policy changed from the year of 2016. With the implementation of the more flexible two-child policy, urban women's fertility habits are changing from the only-child era, and more women face career breaks due to childbirth than before. It has been shown that women with stronger fertility and childcare intentions are more prone to career breaks (Zhang and Du 2019), while a later childbearing age and longer birth spacing are beneficial for female employment.
From a policy perspective, family care, employment support, and parental leave all have a positive impact on women's re-employment. And maternity insurance, maternity allowances, and childcare services can effectively reduce the risk of extended career breaks (Liang et al. 2024). On top of this, labour contracts, employment training, and employment subsidies are important guarantees that can unlock employment, while gender discrimination can intensify women's career breaks.
The coverage rate of childcare institutions is only 18% in urban areas, and less than 5% in rural areas. Existing childcare services primarily rely on informal family-based institutions, with inconsistent service quality (Shi and Wang 2023). Research indicates that the lack of reliable childcare services, making caring time a key priority for women, delays women's return to the workforce by an average of 1.7 years (Qu et al. 2022).
Due to the fear of increasing costs arising from the parental leave of employees, recruitment procedures of employers often display gender-based discrimination. Survey data shows that, in job interviews in China, 61.2% of women are asked questions related to marriage and childbearing, such as whether they are married or have plans to have children, while only one-third of men are asked the same questions (McKinsey & Company 2025). Female job seekers must answer these personal questions, running the risk of potentially losing job opportunities if they answer truthfully and increasing the chances of both unconscious and conscious bias in interview outcomes.
The mismatch between education and employment for Chinese women
Women’s participation in the labour market is also related to the match between their education level and employment. The higher education enrolment rate for Chinese women has surpassed that of men (with women accounting for 52.3% in 2022). However, the employment conversion rate for highly educated women is significantly lower than that of men. Data shows that the unemployment rate for women with graduate degrees is 8.7%, 1.8 times that of men (Ministry of Education 2023). This is primarily due to implicit biases against childbearing-age women by employers and the over-concentration of women in "stable" careers (such as civil servants and teachers, Ministry of Education 2023).
Despite the higher education enrolment of Chinese women, women are less represented in private and political leadership positions. Studies have shown that traditional gender norms can hinder women from receiving promotions during their career, limiting their ability to hold management positions and have direct subordinates (Li et al. 2025).
In politics, women represent only 26.54% of deputies to the 14th National People’s Congress, and since October 2022, there have been no women at the highest executive level. Some have called for China to adopt temporary special measures, such as statutory quotas and a gender parity system, to accelerate the achievement of equal representation of women across a range of government departments, including at decision-making levels (UN 2023).
Gender-based retirement age in China
Retirement policies that request gender-based differences in retirement age have also cut short female LFP and are taking away women’s opportunity for a career “final sprint”. Current policy regulations in China establish different mandatory retirement ages based on gender: male workers retire at the age of 60, while the retirement age for women in various positions ranges from 50 to 55 years old. Notably, the average age of chairpersons in Chinese listed companies is 55, which aligns with the maximum policy mandated retirement age for women (McKinsey & Company 2025). Because they exit the labour market five to ten years earlier than their male counterparts, women are forced to withdraw prematurely from the final sprint in their careers, at the moment when male peers are reaching senior management roles or joining Boards of Directors.
Opportunities and new concerns for Chinese women in the digital era
In some ways, the digital era may increase female LFP by improving the flexibility of employment. The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the adoption of remote work, with 34% of women achieving income growth through flexible employment (Industry Report 2022). In the e-commerce industry, female participants account for 68% of workers, with average monthly incomes 41% higher than those in traditional industries (iResearch Consulting 2023).
However, the internet penetration rate among rural women is 12 percentage points lower than that of men, and the participation rate in digital skills training is only 37% of that in urban areas (Ministry of Industry and Information Technology 2022). This leads to an uneven distribution of digital economy benefits across genders and regions, potentially further marginalising women.
Institutional innovations for family-friendly workplaces and gender equality
Institutions in workplaces play important roles in promoting gender equality and female LFP. To encourage employers to adopt measures that help employees balance work and family life, promote the building of family-friendly workplaces, and foster harmonious and stable labour relations, the All-China Federation of Trade Unions and four other departments launched a nationwide activity, based on the principle of "six-friendlies" - friendly concepts and attitudes, friendly career development, friendly childbirth protection, friendly care support, friendly arrangement, and friendly occupational health (China Women News 2024)
On International Women’s Day in 2024, a UN guidebook “Women at work: Chinese companies taking on gender equality” was launched, showcasing company case studies from diversified industries including technology, textile, transportation, retail and financial services, highlighting good practices to strengthen gender equality in the workplace (UN 2024).
Progress has also been made in the recruitment stage. China introduced fines for job boards posting ads with gender-discrimination in 2016, but enforcement was haphazard. Research by Kuhn and Shen (2023), shows that removing such ads from a regional recruiting board in 2019 significantly increased application of women to jobs previously labelled for men.
Conclusions and the outlook for women in China
China’s labour market has some unique characteristics affecting women. Improving the labour force participation of women in China requires multi-dimensional policy coordination. In the short term, priority should be given to addressing urgent issues such as insufficient childcare services and gender gaps in workplaces. In the medium term, in order to raise the quality of female labour force participation, female human capital quality should be enhanced through digital skills training and leadership training.
The year of 2025 marks the 30th anniversary of the 1995 Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (UN Women 2025). Through ongoing policy improvements, China has the potential to achieve more inclusive gender equality while maintaining economic growth.
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