Analysis of city-level data and national household surveys in urban China, 1988 and 1995, found no longitudinal change nor city-level variation in the gender gap in earnings. However, during this period of market transition, the gender gap in more-marketized cities became more attributable to market-related mechanisms (education and occupation) and less related to redistribution-related mechanisms (party membership and seniority). Contains 84 references. (Author/SV)