Chinese Journal of Sociology ›› 2012, Vol. 32 ›› Issue (4): 112-137.

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Gender Gap in Educational Attainment in Urban and Rural China

WU Yuxiao   

  1. Department of Sociology, School of Philosophy and Social Development, Shandong University
  • Online:2012-07-20 Published:2012-07-20
  • Contact: WU Yuxiao,Department of Sociology, School of Philosophy and Social Development, Shandong University E-mail:ywu2008@sdu.edu.cn
  • Supported by:

    This research was sponsored by “The Eleventh Five” Young Scholar Research Project of the National Social Science Fund “The Impacts of Modern Education on Social Stratification and Mobility” (CFA090096).

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Abstract:

Gender gap in educational attainment has always been one of the most concerned topics for research among sociologists, especially those scholars interested in social stratification and gender studies. With the data from the “2008 Chinese General Social Survey” (CGSS2008), this paper investigates the historical trends of gender inequality in educational attainment and, in particular, examines if the effects of major factors on educational attainment also reflect gender differences. The analyses come to four conclusions. First, among those who were born between 1960 and 1990, later birth cohorts had narrower gender gaps in schooling than earlier cohorts. Since cohort effects reflect to some degree historical changes, this finding suggests a trend of the gender gap in educational access among Chinese citizens getting smaller. Second, between 1978 and 2008, the gender gaps in the opportunities of entering junior high schools and senior high schools had been decreasing successively until 2000 when a reverse was observed, i.e., more female than male students. After 1978 there was no gender difference in the opportunities of going to college. This indicates that great gains for gender equality in educational attainment among Chinese citizens were made at the level of elementary and secondary education. Third, the width of the gender gap differed with different educational levels: The lower the educational level, the larger the gender gap in school continuation (given completion of previous school levels). Among the three educational levels examined in the current study, the opportunities of entering junior high schools were the most unequal between men and women, followed by the opportunities of entering senior high schools, and then for college. Fourth, the gender gap in educational attainment varied with different social groups. Specifically, (1) the gender gap in educational attainment was larger for rural people than for urban people; (2) the gender gap correlated negatively with people’s socioeconomic status (measured by father’s ISEI and parents’ years of schooling) – the lower the socioeconomic status, the larger the gender gap; and (3) with more siblings, the gender gap got larger. The author adopts the modernization theory to interpret the above empirical findings, arguing that the patriarchal culture and the traditional attitudes towards gender roles are the factors that lead to gender inequality in educational attainment. On the one hand, with rapid industrialization and globalization, the patriarchal culture’s overall impact on the Chinese society diminishes and the citizens’ gender role attitudes have changed from traditional to modern views. This generally explains the historical trend of gender inequality decreasing in educational attainment. On the other hand, the author acknowledges the differences in the views of patriarchy and traditional gender roles of people in different social groups. Those who live in the countryside, who have low socioeconomic status, whose parents have less education, and who have more siblings are more likely to be affected by the patriarchal culture and, as a result, tend to have traditional attitudes towards gender roles, and this explains why the gender gaps in educational attainment are larger among people with these characteristics. At the end of the paper, the author discusses various specific factors that commonly contribute to the trend of the gender gap in educational attainment in China becoming smaller as well as the policy implications based on the empirical findings of the current study.

Key words: educational attainment, gender inequality, gender role attitude, patriarchy