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Introduction

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Book cover Work and Family in Urban China

Part of the book series: Politics and Development of Contemporary China ((PDCC))

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Abstract

This chapter introduces the main themes of the book. It begins with the puzzle of the inconsistency between women’s near-equality in education and employment, and their growing domestic-role orientation in the era of post-Mao market reform (1978–present) in urban China. In seeking to solve this puzzle and to understand gender configuration and change in the post-Mao period, the author goes beyond cultural, familial, and labor-market dimensions to take into account the historical processes of state–family relations and the three-way interaction between the state, markets, and families that have shaped the varying work and family experiences of women of three cohorts (revolutionary, Mao, and post-Mao).

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Zuo, J. (2016). Introduction. In: Work and Family in Urban China. Politics and Development of Contemporary China. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-55465-9_1

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