Gendered Recruitment and Implications in China’s Public Sector

• In Event: Chinese Politics Mini-Conference: New Frontiers and Perspectives on Chinese Politics

Abstract

Comparative research on gender and representation in politics tends to focus on reforms that promote women’s entry, retention, and promotion in politics. Despite progressive reforms, women’s underrepresentation in public offices remains constant in much of the world. In this paper, I examine the case of China to show how structural and political barriers can restrict women's representation in public office. Specifically, utilizing an original dataset encompassing detailed information on job ads (238,151) from the Chinese National Civil Service Examination (NCSE), covering both bureaucratic roles and party positions, this research unveils a clear and growing preference for male candidates by the Chinese government from 2005 to 2024. Further analysis indicates that the increased demand for male applicants is attributed to two factors: the expansion of the candidate pool and the rise of qualified females in the talent pool. In addition, this research will delve into the potential costs of prioritizing male candidates in job ads. Regardless of the model specification, the results consistently demonstrate that male-preferred jobs are significantly correlated with fewer candidates and lower formal performance in the NCSE. This research makes two key contributions. Firstly, it quantitatively measures gender discrimination in public sector recruitment by analyzing explicit gender preferences in Chinese government recruitment ads. Secondly, it has the potential to enrich the broader literature on women's representation in public roles, spanning civil service to political positions, in China and other countries where public servants are a primary source of political offices.

Author

• Xiaoxia Huang, Syracuse University