IN the mid- and late-1980s a debate was held in China concerning the issue of women’s employment. It was a time when economic reform involved both the management and labor force of the country’s state-rum enterprises. What the Chinese women in the workforce had experienced from the late 1980s to the early 1990s in many ways differed from our predictions about the debate. Perhaps we can make a closer analysis of the trend in Chinese women’s employment by learning the differences. Both the employment rate and the population of Chinese women in urban and rural areas have steadily grown as the economy has developed. In 1982 the Chinese workforce was IN the mid- and late-1980s a debate was held in China concerning the issue of women’s employment. It was a time when economic reform involved both the management and labor force of the country’s state-rum enterprises. What the Chinese women in the workforce had experienced from the late 1980s to the early 1990s in many ways differed from our predictions about the debate. Perhaps we can make a closer analysis of the trend in Chinese women’s employment by learning the differences. Both the employment rate and the population of Chinese women in urban and rural areas have steadily grown as the economy has developed. In 1982 the Chinese workforce was