Chinese Journal of Sociology ›› 2021, Vol. 41 ›› Issue (5): 208-242.

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“Concession” from Brothers and “Gift” from Mothers: Predominance of Girls in After-school Education and the Logic of Family Preferences

WEI Qingong1, ZHANG Jianan2   

  1. 1. National Academy of Development and Strategy, Renmin University of China;
    2. School of Sociology and Population Studies, Renmin University of China
  • Published:2021-09-27
  • Supported by:
    This study was sponsored by the Beijing Municipal Social Science Foundation (18SRC018), and the MOE Project of Key Research Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences at Universities (19JJD840002).

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Abstract: The gender gap in access to family educational resources is an important social determinant in gender inequality. Contradicting to the conventional "boy first" model of household resource allocation, many studies find that Chinese families nowadays invest preferably on girls in after-school education. This study focuses on this empirical fact that has not been examined in depth and attempts to explore its key influence mechanism as well as the relationship between macro-level family structural changes and micro-level family behavioral orientations. Its aim is to complement the current research debates and explanations on gender preference. Starting from the theoretical context of intergenerational resource allocation, the article suggests two explanatory hypotheses of "child utility change-gender preference shift" and "mother's status enhancement-parental preference divergence" in the analysis of the succession of intergenerational preference patterns. An analysis of the China Education Panel Survey(2013-2014) data is conducted of families with male siblings and different education levels of parents. The statistical results show robustly that the presence of brothers in the family does not negatively impact girls' access to after school educational resources and that girls in urban families has a pronounced advantage over boys, and overall there is a tentative shift from "male preference" to "female preference" in Chinese families. In addition, under reciprocal controls, advancement of father's education has no significant effect on children but a significant positive effect of mother's educational advancement is observed on girls' access to after-school educational resources, and this effect is even more prominent with younger parents, exhibiting a clear pattern of "dual preferences". These findings, at the empirical level, reveal the increased family utility of girls compared to boys in the process of social change and the opportunity for gender preferences to emerge as a result of the enhanced status of mothers.

Key words: after-school education, gender differences, structural transformation of Chinese family, intergenerational resource allocation, gender preference model