Since the late 2000s, the Chinese state has embraced new industrial policies that have focused on upgrading its manufacturing quality, resulting in labor, welfare and population law reforms. According to ILR Assistant Professor Yiran Zhang, an unintended result of these policies is a shift in the workforce that has driven women from factory jobs that were on par with their male counterparts into precarious and lower-quality home-based industrial work in their inland hometowns.