Gendered Reproduction of Occupational Choices Across Generations in China

• In Event: Inequality, Poverty, and Mobility Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): 8. Race, Gender, and Inequality

Abstract

Intergenerational mobility has become a central focus of contemporary stratification research, yet scholarship has largely concentrated on the transmission of income and social class. At the same time, persistent gender segregation in earnings, occupational types, and career advancement remains one of the most durable sources of inequality. However, few studies examine how intergenerational mobility processes themselves may reproduce gendered occupational structures. This paper addresses this gap by combining population census data and nationally representative surveys to analyze how gender‐typed occupations are transmitted across generations in China. I construct a gender-typing occupational scheme using the 2010 Sixth National Population Census and link it to 13 waves of the Chinese General Social Survey (CGSS). Using loglinear models, I examine the joint transmission of occupational class and gender type from parents to children, and analyze the direction of gender-typed occupational sorting net of class reproduction. Results show that both fathers’ and mothers’ gender–class occupations significantly shape children’s occupational outcomes, but paternal effects are substantially stronger and systematically reinforce gender-segregative sorting between male and female. These patterns reinforce occupational gender segregation, particularly among sons, and operate mainly through within-category reproduction rather than cross-category mobility. The findings suggest that gendered occupational stratification is not only maintained through labor market processes but is also reproduced through intergenerational pathways.

Author

• Zhenyuan Han, Columbia University