Diligent Daughters: Women’s Educational Outperformance in Contemporary China

Abstract

In post-reform China (1979–present), women have advanced rapidly in educational achievement, and now surpass men in undergraduate and postgraduate attendance. Scholars tend to attribute women’s outperformance to the one-child policy, which empowered urban singleton daughters. But around 40 percent of women undergraduate students are from rural areas, where multi-child families and son preference are common. Based on participant observation, ethnographic interviews, and longitudinal family case studies, this article addresses educated migrant women from a broad range of backgrounds in Fujian province. It argues that academically outperforming daughters combine self-development, filiality, and resistance to patriarchal norms to pursue the full subjecthood that is conventionally reserved for men—encompassing recognition for individual accomplishment, independence, and filial contribution. By navigating marriage pressures and economically contributing to their natal families, diligent daughters shift patricentric family dynamics toward more bilateral arrangements, eroding the patriarchal structures that undergird male-centered power even as many gendered norms remain intact.