題記：本文摘編自同題論文Working mothers' dilemma during the COVID-19 pandemic: Evidence from China，該論文2024年2月刊發(fā)于China Economic Review。第一作者張丹丹北大博雅青年學(xué)者、國(guó)發(fā)院副院長(zhǎng)、經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)教授，教育部長(zhǎng)江青年學(xué)者，劉雅玄為北大碩士生，趙一泠為北大經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)院助理教授。

女性在勞動(dòng)力市場(chǎng)上的地位與男性存在顯著差異是一個(gè)長(zhǎng)期存在的問題，在當(dāng)今低生育率情況下更不容小覷。

2023年諾貝爾經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)獎(jiǎng)得主Claudia Goldin指出，勞動(dòng)力市場(chǎng)上的性別平等，在很大程度上取決于家庭內(nèi)部的分工與平等。新冠疫情作為一場(chǎng)突如其來的外部沖擊，不僅引發(fā)了全球公共健康問題，還造成全球性經(jīng)濟(jì)衰退。為應(yīng)對(duì)外來生存和經(jīng)濟(jì)壓力，兩性在家庭中的地位又會(huì)發(fā)生哪些變化？

疫情因素為我們觀察兩性在家庭和職場(chǎng)中的地位變化提供了獨(dú)特視角。

在發(fā)達(dá)國(guó)家，新冠疫情引發(fā)的經(jīng)濟(jì)衰退對(duì)男性和女性產(chǎn)生了截然不同的影響，出現(xiàn)了所謂的“女性衰退”（She-cession）現(xiàn)象。

中國(guó)作為女性勞動(dòng)力參與率較高的國(guó)家，在疫情期間實(shí)施了嚴(yán)格的防控措施。因此，研究中國(guó)勞動(dòng)力市場(chǎng)在疫情期間的性別差異具有重要意義。為此，2020年疫情防控的不同時(shí)期（3月、6月和11月），我們針對(duì)中國(guó)325個(gè)城市5866名從業(yè)者進(jìn)行了三輪追蹤調(diào)查。我們的研究基于這些調(diào)查數(shù)據(jù)，系統(tǒng)分析了女性勞動(dòng)力相比男性在疫情期間所承擔(dān)的額外經(jīng)濟(jì)和心理成本。

三輪調(diào)查涵蓋了受訪者疫情前、疫情中和疫情后的工作狀態(tài)和收入信息，以便分析男女從業(yè)者在各階段的就業(yè)和收入差異。此外，對(duì)于有配偶的受訪者，6月和11月的調(diào)查中，我們還專門收集了配偶的工作狀態(tài)和收入變動(dòng)信息，以及家庭分工與子女相關(guān)的問題，從而構(gòu)建家庭層面的數(shù)據(jù)集，分析家庭內(nèi)部夫妻雙方在勞動(dòng)力市場(chǎng)中呈現(xiàn)的結(jié)果差異。

首先，我們探討了新冠疫情對(duì)男性和女性從業(yè)者在勞動(dòng)力市場(chǎng)表現(xiàn)方面所受影響的差異。結(jié)果顯示，疫情后失業(yè)、工作時(shí)長(zhǎng)和工資的性別差距進(jìn)一步拉大。

截至2020年11月，中國(guó)女性勞動(dòng)力的失業(yè)率比男性高出5.1%；女性平均每天工作時(shí)長(zhǎng)比男性少1.4小時(shí)，這一差距較疫情前的0.6小時(shí)/天擴(kuò)大了133%；女性平均工資比男性低2234元/月，較疫情前的1725元/月擴(kuò)大了近30%。在控制了職業(yè)和行業(yè)因素后，這些結(jié)論依然成立，也說明導(dǎo)致“女性衰退”的原因可能更多地與兩個(gè)方面的變化有關(guān)，即個(gè)體的勞動(dòng)參與意愿變化，或者就業(yè)市場(chǎng)的性別偏好變化。

其次，婚姻和子女狀況進(jìn)一步加劇了勞動(dòng)力市場(chǎng)的性別差距。有學(xué)齡前子女的職場(chǎng)媽媽在勞動(dòng)力市場(chǎng)中處于最為不利的地位。與有學(xué)齡前子女的職場(chǎng)爸爸相比，她們失業(yè)的可能性高出181%，工作時(shí)間減少18.6%，勞動(dòng)收入（截至2020年底）低36.8%。這表明，疫情期間的封控措施、學(xué)校停課和經(jīng)濟(jì)停滯，加劇了“男主外，女主內(nèi)”的傳統(tǒng)家庭分工模式，使女性在復(fù)工和家庭之間面臨更大挑戰(zhàn)，因?yàn)橐袚?dān)更多家庭負(fù)擔(dān)。做出犧牲的職場(chǎng)媽媽，心理健康狀況也比較糟糕，這反映出疫情期間家庭和工作的雙重壓力對(duì)女性有巨大影響。

再次，為了進(jìn)一步揭示男女在勞動(dòng)力市場(chǎng)上的差異與家庭分工變化有直接關(guān)系，我們使用配偶數(shù)據(jù)集，對(duì)已婚夫妻在疫情期間的分工差異進(jìn)一步做分析。結(jié)果顯示，平均而言，妻子復(fù)工的概率低于丈夫；若妻子的收入高于丈夫，她更有可能在封鎖解除后重返工作崗位，并工作更長(zhǎng)時(shí)間。不過，如果家庭中有學(xué)齡子女，收入高于丈夫的妻子在優(yōu)先復(fù)工和工作時(shí)長(zhǎng)方面的優(yōu)勢(shì)將不復(fù)存在。

綜上所述，本研究發(fā)現(xiàn)新冠疫情加劇了中國(guó)勞動(dòng)力市場(chǎng)上的性別收入差距，這主要源于應(yīng)急狀態(tài)下家庭內(nèi)部分工的變化。在特殊時(shí)期，職場(chǎng)媽媽承擔(dān)了家庭更多的責(zé)任、更大的就業(yè)沖擊，也經(jīng)歷了更嚴(yán)重的心理創(chuàng)傷。

不僅如此，疫情結(jié)束后勞動(dòng)力市場(chǎng)的性別差距仍呈擴(kuò)大趨勢(shì)，職場(chǎng)媽媽的困境難以在短期內(nèi)得到根本改善。

本研究呼吁，在應(yīng)急情況下要特別關(guān)注家庭內(nèi)部的弱勢(shì)勞動(dòng)群體，尤其是面臨照顧子女和工作兩難選擇的女性。由于她們的身心健康狀況對(duì)于朝夕相處的下一代影響巨大，家庭其他成員、就業(yè)單位和社會(huì)都需要為她們提供更多、更有力的支持，以減輕她們的負(fù)擔(dān)并促進(jìn)性別平等。

Gender disparity in the labor market should not be underestimated. Claudia Goldin, who won the 2023 Nobel Prize in Economics, believes that gender equality in the labor market largely depends on the division of labor and equality within families. The COVID-19 pandemic, as an unexpected external shock, has led to public health crises around the world, causing a global economic recession. It has also provided an opportunity for us to observe changes in the status of men and women in families when responding to external survival and economic pressures.

Evidence from developed countries shows that the global economic recession triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic has had distinctly different impacts on men and women, leading to a "She-cession." China implemented the strictest pandemic prevention and control measures during the pandemic. With high female labor force participation rates, COVID-19’s impact on China's labor market and the gender differences it brought are more noteworthy.

This article employs data from three waves of individual tracking surveys conducted in March, June, and November 2020, covering 5,866 workers in 325 cities across China. We systematically analyzed the additional economic and psychological costs of female labor compared to male labor during the pandemic. Our survey collected information on respondents' work status and income before, during, and after the COVID-19 outbreak in 2020, which can be used to analyze gender differences at different points. In addition to detailed individual information, we extended the survey questions to spouses of sampled respondents (if any) in the two follow-up surveys. This allowed us to construct a household-level dataset of married couples to analyze within-household differences in labor market outcomes between couples.

The first question we address is the gender difference in the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on labor market outcomes. Our results show a widening gender gap in unemployment, hours worked, and monthly salary throughout 2020. As of November 2020, compared to pre-pandemic, the unemployment rate of female employees was 5.1 percentage points higher than that of male employees; women’s average working hours were 1.4 hours per day shorter than men, a 133% increase from the 0.6 hours/day difference before the pandemic; and women's wages were 2,234 RMB/month lower than men's on average, an increase of nearly 30% from the 1,725 yuan/month difference before the pandemic. These conclusions remain valid even after controlling for occupation and industry fixed effects, ruling out the possibility that the results are mainly caused by the pandemic having a more significant impact on the industries and occupations where women are employed. This suggests that the "She-cession" in China is more likely due to changes in individuals' willingness to supply the labor force or employers’ gender preferences.

Marriage and children further exacerbate the gender gaps in the labor market. Working mothers with a child aged 0–6 experienced the most adverse labor market outcomes. Specifically, working mothers with children under 7 were 43.8% more likely to be unemployed than women without children under 7. Moreover, compared with working fathers with children under 7, working mothers with children under 7 bore an 181% higher unemployment risk, spent 18.6% less time on work, and earned 36.8% less per month in November 2020. During the pandemic, lockdowns, school closures, and economic standstill intensified the traditional family division of labor in families, where “men work outside, and women take care of the home,” leading to women bearing a more significant burden of family responsibilities. Working mothers faced a dilemma between work resumption and family responsibilities, which made them shoulder more household burdens. Working mothers who made sacrifices seem to be less happy. We found that the mental health of working mothers was significantly worse than other groups, which seems to indicate the enormous impact of the dual pressures of family and work during the unique circumstances of the pandemic on women.

To further illustrate that the gender disparity in the labor market primarily reflects changes in the division of labor within families, we utilized the couple dataset focusing on gender differences in labor division within married couples during the pandemic. Using the information on the respondents’ and their spouses’ pre-pandemic salaries, we assessed how relative earning ability factored into differentiated work resumption decisions for a husband and wife. On average, the wife was less likely to return to work than her husband. That gap went down if the wife earned more than her husband but hardly changed if the wife earned more than her husband and the household had a child 0-6.

Our results underscore that the COVID-19 shock exacerbated the gendered income gap. This change mainly stems from the labor division within families under emergency conditions. During this particular period, working mothers took on more family responsibilities and faced more significant employment impacts, experiencing more severe mental health. Moreover, we found that the gender gap in the labor market tends to widen even after the pandemic ends. The situation for working mothers is unlikely to improve fundamentally in the short term.

This study calls for attention to vulnerable groups at the household level during emergencies. Women face the dilemma of childcare and working, and their mental health has a significant impact on the next generation with whom they spend day and night. Therefore, families, employers, and society need to support women more robustly.

作者簡(jiǎn)介：

張丹丹 (Dandan Zhang)：北大博雅青年學(xué)者、國(guó)發(fā)院副院長(zhǎng)、經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)教授，教育部長(zhǎng)江青年學(xué)者，中國(guó)勞動(dòng)經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)會(huì)常務(wù)理事。研究領(lǐng)域?yàn)閯趧?dòng)經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)、應(yīng)用計(jì)量經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)和實(shí)驗(yàn)經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)，特別關(guān)注轉(zhuǎn)型期弱勢(shì)群體的福利問題及社會(huì)變革、制度文化沖擊對(duì)人行為的影響。

劉雅玄 (Yaxuan Liu)：北大碩士學(xué)生。研究興趣包括勞動(dòng)經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)、行為經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)、公司金融、宏觀金融等。

趙一泠 (Yiling Zhao)（通訊作者）：北京大學(xué)經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)院助理教授，研究領(lǐng)域?yàn)榻?jīng)濟(jì)史和勞動(dòng)經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)。其研究主要關(guān)注歷史事件對(duì)人力資本積累和偏好的影響。

原文信息：

Zhang, Dandan, Yaxuan Liu, and Yiling Zhao. "Working mothers' dilemma during the COVID-19 pandemic: Evidence from China." China Economic Review (2024): 102132.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1043951X2400021X/pdfft?md5=873c2e44f64858f6815788fa411328b3&pid=1-s2.0-S1043951X2400021X-main.pdf

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網(wǎng)址: 【論文精要】張丹丹+劉雅玄+趙一泠：新冠疫情加劇職場(chǎng)中的“女性衰退”現(xiàn)象——來自中國(guó)的證據(jù) http://m.u1s5d6.cn/newsview1445503.html