This dissertation, consisting of three self-contained but related chapters, examines gender differences in career mobility in contemporary urban China. The first chapter examines the changing association of relative occupational socio-economic status of Chinese couples before and after marriage. Analysis of Chinese General Social Survey 2006 data reveals an asymmetry of occupational status between husband and wife regardless of their implicit comparative advantage in the labor market, and this asymmetric pattern tends to be intensified after marriage and persistent across marriage cohorts. The second chapter places the investigation of gendered patterns of career mobility in the broad context of China’s economic transition. As labor markets become increasingly competitive, work-family...[ Read more ]

This dissertation, consisting of three self-contained but related chapters, examines gender differences in career mobility in contemporary urban China. The first chapter examines the changing association of relative occupational socio-economic status of Chinese couples before and after marriage. Analysis of Chinese General Social Survey 2006 data reveals an asymmetry of occupational status between husband and wife regardless of their implicit comparative advantage in the labor market, and this asymmetric pattern tends to be intensified after marriage and persistent across marriage cohorts. The second chapter places the investigation of gendered patterns of career mobility in the broad context of China’s economic transition. As labor markets become increasingly competitive, work-family conflicts have increasingly shape women’s career trajectories. Using the retrospective work-history data from Chinese General Social Survey 2008, I found that, Chinese women in the workforce are more adversely affected by marriage and dependent children than their male counterparts: they are more likely to withdraw from the labor market, and less likely to experience upward career mobility, especially in the late reform period. Moreover, the stagnant career advancement explains a significant portion of gender earnings gaps. The last chapter examines gender difference in career expectation and occupational attainment at labor market entry among college graduates in Beijing, focusing on the role of study fields. Drawing data from Beijing College Student Panel Study 2009-2013, I shows that, while study fields can explain gender differences in career expectation to a large degree, its effect on gender difference in first occupation is mixed. If women could follow the same patterns as men in entering different study fields, more women would become professionals or technicians, and they would even enjoy slightly higher earnings advantages over their male counterparts at labor market entry. These three chapters, complementary to each other, provide new perspectives and novel evidence in understanding gender stratification dynamics over the life course in contemporary China.