Investing in sons or daughters? The educational aspirations of rural parents in China

Abstract

Based on the first wave of the China Education Panel Survey, this study aims to test two competing mechanisms including son preference and meritocracy of leading to parents’ expectations of and investment in their children’s education. This article presents a general portrayal of academic performance among rural boys and girls. The findings depict a general pattern of parents’ investment: parents are more likely to invest in their daughters than sons, and fathers have a higher educational expectation of daughters. The influence of sibling numbers and ‘having a brother(s) or not’ on parents’ educational expectations and investment is similar for rural boys and girls. Fathers’ educational expectations are mainly based on the academic performance of their children (meritocracy) while mothers’ are more closely related to children’s gender. Son preference as a cultural characteristic remains influential in rural regions, although it is not as powerful as before and a trend towards egalitarianism is emerging.