Social Barriers to, and Gender Gaps in, Educational Attainment for Rural Citizens in China

This research project examined the social barriers to gender equalities in rural Chinese educational contexts in order to identify impediments to educational advancement and, thus, career mobility and poverty reduction, especially for rural girls in the long-term. The research questions of this study were as follows: In what ways and to what extent do different social factors influence the gender gaps among rural Chinese students' academic outcomes? The examined barriers were (1) gender, (2) parental educational attainment, (3) opportunities to practise Mandarin at home, (4) social welfare entitlement, (5) adequacy of educational facilities, and (6) transport accessibility. Human capital theory and dependency theory were used to develop the conceptual framework. Low paternal and particularly maternal education are associated with the widening rural Chinese cohorts' gender gaps in educational attainment; the magnitudes of the found associations are moderate.