Empowering women through digitalization: an analysis of the digital economy’s effect on gender gaps in employment

Abstract This study investigates how the digital economy influences gender disparities in labor market participation using city-level digital economy data and the China Labor-force Dynamic Survey (CLDS). Our findings demonstrate that the digital economy significantly narrows the gender gap in labor market participation, primarily through increasing female labor force participation. The mechanism analysis reveals that the digital economy facilitates this reduction in two ways: by weakening traditional perceptions of gender-based division of labor within families and by alleviating work-family conflicts for women. The effect is particularly pronounced in regions where Confucian values of “men as breadwinners and women as homemakers” are more deeply entrenched, compared to regions less influenced by these traditional values. Moreover, we find that the digital economy’s positive impact on reducing the gender gap is significant among married individuals, who typically face greater work-life balance challenges, while no significant effect is observed among unmarried individuals.