<p>In the context of consistent declines in women’s labor force participation in China, this study examines the associations of maternal employment trajectories with birth cohort, educational attainment, and urban-rural residency. Using data from the 1991–2015 China Health and Nutrition Survey, I find a substantial decline in mean levels of labor force participation and delayed return to work following motherhood across successive cohorts. I also find significant variations in mean participation rates by educational attainment. Women with a college education exhibited an elevated participation trajectory throughout the first postpartum decade, and the effect of education became increasingly salient in more recent cohorts. Furthermore, I find that the cohort shifts and educational variations in maternal employment were not uniform across urban and rural contexts. While urban mothers exhibited lower participation rates on average, urban-rural disparities narrowed across cohorts and showed more complex patterning along the education line. These findings highlight the profound impact of China’s massive social and historical transformations in the post-reform era on maternal labor force participation trajectories and social disparities therein, offering important policy implications for mitigating the motherhood penalty and supporting stable, sustained employment for new mothers.</p>