It is common, in many countries, to see boys perform better than girls in mathematics (data from PISA, OECD, 2014), and generally men earn higher wages than women (OECD, 2015). This has led to a misrecognition that men are cleverer and more capable than women, especially in the technology and mathematic subjects that are more popular and highly demanded in the labour market. However, gender stereotypes that are rooted in society shape children’s values and perceptions even before they realise their full potential and can reasonably be expected to know what they want to be and what they want to do (Bian, 2022, Su et al., 2021). Scholars use this to explain why girls and boys develop so differently through, psychological, sociological, social learning and cognitive-development theories (see Kollmayer et al., 2018).  

On the one hand, parents’ expectations for children are strongly influenced by gender-stereotypical judgements. They implicitly and explicitly transmit traditional gender role to their children by finding beauty-desirable toys for daughters while finding aggressive toys for sons, and by arranging different education and career planning to boys and girls respectively (Kollmayer et al., 2018). On the other hand, gender-stereotyped expectations are transmitted to children, beginning from birth, by parents, teachers and social media. Consequently, stereotypical preferences and beliefs implicitly shape the way they try to behave and they adjust their behaviour to align with the gender-stereotypical expectations they have received (Ellemers, 2018). 

According to the Chinese literature, family is the most important unit to sustain the stability of society, Chinese society expects women to ‘shoulder the responsibilities of taking care of the old and young, as well as educating children’ (Xi, cited in Wang, 2017, p.260). Many studies have found that parents expectations towards daughters influence female students’ choices of higher education institutions and disciplines because girls would ‘give up their own choices in education to repay their parents’ love’ (Hanum et al., 2009; Yang et al., 2013; Sheng, 2015). This finding raises questions about the role that higher education can and does play in perpetuating or challenging traditional gender stereotypes. The study described in this paper is exploring this questions by examining how parents’ influence Chinese female students’ higher education choices and the degree to which this and the education received helps perpetuate or challenge gender stereotypes and inequalities. This work also offers a lens on European contexts in many of these contexts parental expectations, gender stereotypes and higher education choices impact on girls\women’s careers and lives.

This study adopts Nancy Fraser's theories of redistribution, recognition and representation to analyse and answer the research questions. Fraser analyses gender (in)equalities using the concepts of: a) redistribution (e.g. of educational and employment opportunities) and educational opportunities to eliminate gender gaps and inequalities; b). recognition (e.g. the degree to which women’s contribution, ambitions and desires are acknowledged and they are valued and affirmed for their potential and actual contribution); and c) the degree to which women are represented (e.g. in the disciplines they study and in their families and wider society as potential scientists and other professons (Fraser, 2007). In this study, maldistribution of family resources in line with the male-centred line of decent, misrecognition of how women, and restrains on their social and civil participation would be analysed according to Fraser's notions.

Three research questions are therefore raised for this study:

1. How parents see girls in relation to their higher education choices? 
2. How female students’ own perceptions of their gender identity influence their choices of higher education? 
3. Whether and how higher education motivates female students to re-consider their gender identity and challenge their previous ideas about gender and their role in Chinese society?

Methods Qualitative semi-structured interviews were used to collect data from 25 Chinese female undergraduates. The undergraduates were from different universities and studying different disciplines. They were recruited using convenience sampling. Eighteen of them are the only-child in their family, 4 have younger brothers and 3 have both sisters and brothers. This variation in family size is helpful for me to compare gender disparities in the investment in children’s education and their treatment in families with other male and female children. Considering ethical issues, a consent form has been prepared and sent to all participants via email before interview, explaining the aims of the study and highlighting interviewees’ right to pass any questions they felt uncomfortable (Cohen et al., 2018). An oral explanation was also given before starting each interview in order to ensure that all respondents fully understood the process (Thomas, 2017). Since the research needs participants to share their personal experience, pseudonyms would be given to ensure anonymity. School names were also removed for further identity anonymity. To protect the privacy of data, all data is stored in my password-protected University X file for privacy protection. Thematic analysis were adopted in this research, combining inductive coding and deductive coding. Inductive coding would be finished when familiarising myself with the data, reading, theorizing and generating data to an index of terms that is relevant to my research questions. Then using deductive coding to compare these coding with existing coding that were explored in literature to define and evidence themes to invalidate or confirm the findings and conclusions (Swain, 2018).

The results indicate that the parents play a role in shaping their daughters through their commitment to gender stereotypes. This results in a maldistribution of family resources. Female students who have younger or elder brothers expressed that their parents pay more attention to their brothers and spend more time and money to support their brothers’ study. The different treatment they receive leads these female students to perceive themselves as being of subordinate status within their families. Some of the women express an understanding to their parents’ unequal treatment and investment because they believe patriarchy is unchallengeable in Chinese society. These students were compliant to their parents’ arrangements to study disciplines such as education and Chinese literacy and prefer to choose easy and stable jobs after graduation because they have accepted their subordinate and dependent roles in the society. Other female students do not agree with their parents’ unequal treatment. They do not want to be a ‘wife’ or a ‘mother’ like their mums. They preferred to choose universities that are far from their families. However, they seemed unclear about what they want to do and what they want to be and hence, what disciplines they should pick: nobody has shown them a different way. Their first life plan is to live far away from their families and make a living independently. Higher education provides them with an opportunity to achieve this plan. Parents also transport gender stereotypes to girls through passing on their misrecognition of womanhood to their daughters. One of female students told me that her mum persuaded her to study an education discipline at university because being a teacher is appropriate for a ‘wife’ and ‘mother’, because the great reputation teachers have in China will enable her future husband to feel honour and that summer and winter vacations could also be used to care for her families.

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