Does e-commerce reduce income disparity between urban and rural women? Evidence from China

The income disparity between urban and rural women constitutes a significant constraint on balanced social development. While prior studies underscore the role of e-commerce in boosting incomes and generating spillover effects, its effects on urban-rural gender income gaps remain under-examined. Drawing on segmented labour market theory and a digital entrepreneurship perspective, we argue that e-commerce can weaken place-based constraints by reallocating employment opportunities towards rural areas and by lowering entry barriers to flexible, platform-enabled income generation. Using data from Taobao Villages and the China General Social Survey (CGSS), we find that e-commerce development significantly reduces the income gap between urban and rural women. Mechanism analysis reveals two pathways: at the macro level, e-commerce facilitates the labour force and female and low-end manufacturing industry to townships, thereby creating additional employment opportunities for rural women. At the micro level, it directly broadens rural women’s sideline income channels. However, it does not appear to alter their occupational status, suggesting limits to e-commerce’s transformative effects on labour stratification.