The impact of digital literacy on women’s wage income: evidence from China

Against the backdrop of widening gender income disparity in China, this study empirically examines the impact of digital literacy (DL) on women’s wage income, basing on data from the 2020 China Family Panel Studies (CFPS 2020). The research findings indicate the following: Firstly, DL has a significant positive effect on women’s wage income, this conclusion remains valid after conducting robustness checks and endogeneity tests. Secondly, DL’s impact shows significant gender disparity. Mechanism analysis based on a causal mediation framework confirms three pathways: enhanced female consciousness, broadened information channels, and a dual effect of schedule flexibility that benefits high-DL women while disadvantaging those with low DL. Furthermore, the degree of influence of DL on women’s wage income varies significantly across different educational attainment, childbearing intentions and support for intergenerational care. Finally, this study further explores the different impacts of various dimensions of DL on women’s wage income. This paper tentatively summarizes the pathways through which DL affects wage income from a women’s perspective, providing new insights for female employees to build a more targeted DL system.