Voices of older women from China

The establishment of the new China in 1949 liberated millions of Chinese women, who were able to enjoy equal employment rights and opportunities for the first time alongside men. The redistribution of jobs effected by the government through the employment management system entitled almost every woman of employable age to a job in the planned economy (Zhou 1995). The women in this study were born just before or just after the establishment of the new China, with most of them employed for the first time in the period between 1960 and 1980. Thus they were at the forefront of this particular set of social and economic transformations, experiencing first-hand China’s dramatic transition from a traditional planned economy to a socialist market economy, with commensurate changes to their employment experiences and labour market transitions.