our findings imply that the high profile urban part of the female migrant labor force is
less important numerically than those female workers that migrate and commute into
rural areas.
The increasing numbers of rural female migrants and the propensity for female
workers to move into rural rather than urban areas has greatly expanded the number of
female workers engaging in rural-to-rural labor movement. The number of female rural-
to-rural migrants rose from less than 1 million in 1988 to more than 5.7 million in 1995.
The number of female rural-to-rural commuters also rose sharply (from 1.2 million to 4
million). By 1995, a total of 9.7 million female workers (5.7 plus 4) participated in rural-
to-rural movement, up from less than 2.2 million in 1988.
In summary, the survey data point to three factors that explain the large increase
in the migration of female workers to China’s rural industries. First, overall migration
increased by threefold between 1988 and 1995. Second, female workers increased their
share of the migrating workforce to nearly a quarter of the total migrating labor force in
1995. Third, female migrant workers are increasingly likely to go to other rural villages
rather than urban destinations in 1995 when compared to 1988.
Education and Age
Education serves as an important means of accessing off-farm employment in
rural China. Like rural-to-urban migrants and commuters, workers participating in rural-
to-rural labor movement tend to have more education than most rural residents, although
they tend to be less educated than other off-farm workers. In 1995, only 49 percent of
rural-to-rural commuters and 42 percent of rural-to-rural migrants had graduated from
middle school (table 2, row 3, columns 8 and 9). In contrast, 59 percent of self-employed
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