Women’s participation in China’s workforce has taken a nosedive in the last few decades. Credit: David Guyler, Creative Commons
For three decades, China’s embrace of capitalism has transformed the nation, fueling the fortunes of entrepreneurs and lifting hundreds of millions of people out of poverty. And yet one key group has been left behind: women.
In the latest indication of this trend, women have been found to be woefully under-represented at state-owned enterprises (SOEs), according to a recent study released by the Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE), a Washington-based think tank. The study, which looked at one of the most crucial sectors of the economy, found that women account for just 5 percent of the senior executives at nonfinancial SOEs affiliated with the central government, and just 24 percent of all employees. For those women with senior roles at state firms, more than half served as either the chief accountant or head of discipline inspection, positions that are not traditionally a path to the top.
The study sheds light on one of the conundrums of China’s developmen
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