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This paper analyzes changes in labor force participation rates over time for gender- and ethnicity-differentiated groups in urban China. From 1990 to 2000, urban labor force participation rates fell substantially with women's rates declining more rapidly than men's and minority women's declining more rapidly than Han women's. Women's labor force participation is determined by a complex interaction of often gendered economic, demographic, and cultural factors that vary considerably by ethnic group. This analysis employs probit regression techniques to census data to explore possible explanations for the observed changes. This paper focuses on five of China's larger ethnic groups: the Han, Hui, Korean, Uygur, and Zhuang. Although many of the findings differ by ethnic group, for married women there is evidence of a return to more traditional expectations about gendered household roles that is consistent across groups. The research techniques also uncover evidence of discrimination against men of certain ethnic groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper documents the changing impact of foreign direct investment (FDI) on gendered wages in urban China. Combining household survey data from 1995 and 2002 with province-level macro-data, the paper finds that FDI as a proportion of investment has a sizable and statistically significant positive effect on both female and male wages in both years. In 1995, women experienced larger gains from FDI than men, but those gender-based advantages had reversed by 2002, with men experiencing larger wage gains from FDI than women. The paper argues that these results reflect the shift of foreign-invested enterprises to higher productivity and more domestically oriented production, a shift that interacts with gender-based employment segregation to more greatly advantage workers in male-dominated than female-dominated industries. These findings indicate that FDI can have considerable structural effects on economies that reach beyond the particular workers and firms linked to foreign investors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the dormitory labor system, a specific Chinese labor system through which the lives of Chinese women migrant workers are shaped by the international division of labor. This dormitory labor system is a gendered form of labor use that underlies the boom of export-oriented industrial production in China, which has been further boosted by China's accession to the World Trade Organization. Combining work and residence under the dormitory labor system, production and daily reproduction of labor are reconfigured for the sake of global production, with foreign-invested or privately owned companies controlling almost all daily reproduction of labor. Drawing upon the findings of a 2003 - 4 case study of an electronics factory in South China, this paper analyzes the operation of the dormitory labor system, detailing both its role in increasing output and profits and its role in supporting workers' resistance to their employers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]