Not Only Mothers: The Effects of Family Policy on Women’s Employment in China

Women’s employment, as a critical dimension of gender equality, is conditioned on national family policies. Using panel data from the China Family Panel Survey, this article analyses how family policies affect multi-dimensional employment outcomes of women in China, where recent reforms in family policy are highly fertility-oriented. Findings show that extended maternity leave exerts negative effects on women’s wages and occupational socioeconomic status among all Chinese female employees, irrespective of motherhood. By contrast, the negative effect of maternity leave on female labour force participation is much less prominent. Furthermore, funded childcare has a protective but limited effect on women’s employment. Our findings suggest that family policy may influence not only mothers but all women due to the realised or potential fertility, thus affecting the gender disparity in the labour market to a broader extent. Implications for work-family reconciliation and gender equality are also discussed.