Gender ideologies of youth in post-socialist China: their gender-role attitudes, antecedents, and socio-psychological impacts

Abstract

In dialogue with the new gender ideology “egalitarian essentialism” which reveals uneven transformation of gender equity in public and private spheres, this study looks into the nuanced gender ideologies among Chinese youth, their antecedents and socio-psychological impacts on the young people. We apply latent class analysis to data on gender-role attitudes that were collected in 12 vocational colleges in China (N = 4,793). The three gender ideology profiles that we identify—egalitarian, essentialist, and neutral groups—demonstrate an alternative version of “egalitarian essentialism” in post-socialist China which highlights that a continuation of egalitarian attitudes in families co-exists with a growth of essentialist attitudes in employment. Furthermore, multivariate analysis shows that the three gender ideology profiles are structured primarily by sex and socio-economic backgrounds. We also find that the gender ideologies contribute to the prediction of the youth’s subjective well-being, especially their future expectations and psychological distress—the relations that have been under-researched in previous studies in China.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by the CRF, Research Grants Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China [C5010-15G].

Notes on contributors

Anita Koo

Dr. Anita Koo is an associate professor at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Her research focuses on education inequality, class stratification, and migrant population in China.

Bryant P. H. Hui

Dr. Bryant P. H. Hui is an assistant professor at the University of Hong Kong. His work focuses on prosociality, well-being, globalization, migration, and acculturation.

Ngai Pun

Prof. Ngai Pun is a professor at the University of Hong Kong. Her research focuses on migration, labor, gender, social economy, socialist history, and China.