e time, China as a whole has not obtained the full benefit of the human capital embodied in its rural women.
The rural woman who moves to a city to work as a housemaid contributes less to China's economic and social progress than she would if trained as a driver or skilled factory worker, let alone a teacher or engineer. The rural woman who remains in the countryside and finds work as a local factory worker gains less, and contributes less, than if her work were paid equally to that of her male coworkers.
This critique should not be taken as a means to dismiss the enormous progress that China has already made. Rural women, like practically all other Chinese, have vastly greater options and opportunities available to them
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