Women rising as half of the sky? An empirical study on women from the one-child generation and their higher education participation in contemporary China

Abstract

This article explores the changing dynamics between gender, cultural capital and the state in the context of higher education expansion in contemporary China. With a particular focus on the One-Child generation and women's opportunities and aspirations, I draw upon empirical evidence from a first-hand survey study and indepth, semi-structured interviews with female undergraduates from one-child families in 2007. The study's findings suggest singleton status might mediate the impact of socioeconomic status and cultural capital on students' academic performance and elite opportunities. The qualitative interview data provide further evidence on how singleton women's aspirations are related to their socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds. The most significant finding concerns singleton girls' strategy of applying for Chinese Communist Party membership as a way to minimize their social and gender disadvantages. I argue that a bottom-up approach of women empowerment is emerging through qualifications and political selection during China's transition. Political selection is dressed up in seemingly meritocratic selection, thus becoming more appealing to female undergraduates who, in turn, take advantage of Party membership to add a silver lining of political loyalty to higher education qualifications.

The impact of China’s one-child policy on intergenerational and gender relations

“…[ Figure 4 about here] Figure 4 depicts the marginal differences between girls and boys in intergenerational investment and in children's subjective perceptions across sibship structures. The findings do not support Hypothesis 2A, which predicts that singleton boys and girls enjoy greater intergender equality in intergenerational investment than their counterparts with siblings (see Liu, 2016;Tsui & Rich, 2002). We found little gender difference (at the 5% level) in intergenerational investment, irrespective of sibship structure.…”

“…The market transition and dissolution of work units unmoored the onechild generation from collectivist and patriarchal traditions (Yan, 2009), fostering a sense of individual personhood (Fong, 2002). Such individuality is often projected through individualised educational and career aspirations (Fong, 2002;Liu, 2016) and the selfreflexive approach adopted by singleton children to construct a sense of subjective wellbeing (Kim & Fong, 2014;Wang & Fong, 2009).…”

“…However, children's subjective perception remains largely absent from the assessment of gender equality under the one-child policy. Following the tradition of socioeconomic mobility research, previous studies on China have predominantly focussed on the one-way traffic of parent-to-child care provision and the transfer of economic and human capital (Lee, 2012;Liu, 2016;Xu & Yeung, 2013). Irrespective of parental investment, children construct independent views on their own lived experiences (Fong, 2002;Hu, 2015), and these views may help shape their life aspirations, subjectively perceived sense of gender (in)equality, and subjective wellbeing.…”

“…It is widely acknowledged that gender equality is defined through relative social comparisons, and such comparisons are conducted in multiple dimensions (Hu & Yucel, 2018). The claim that greater gender equality existed among Chinese children under the one-child policy was based one-sidedly on intra-gender evidence comparing singleton girls and boys to those with siblings (Fong, 2002;Liu, 2016;Xu & Yeung, 2013). Only a small number of studies have considered male-female equality, and conducted inter-gender comparison between singleton daughters and sons (Lee, 2012).…”

“…In doing so, we make two contributions to existing scholarship. First, claims about rising gender equality under the one-child policy are founded primarily on evidence that, compared to children with siblings, singletons in the one-child generation receive greater financial and time investment from their parents and extended family members (Fong, 2002;Liu, 2016;Tsui & Rich, 2002). We contend that this intra-gender evidence does not suffice to demonstrate the achievement of gender equality between girls and boys.…”