Gender Inequality in China’s Preschool Education

DOI

10.2991/978-2-494069-31-2_297How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Preschool education; Gender stereotype; Gender inequality; Picture book; Male preschool teacher

Abstract

The study of gender inequality and gender stereotypes in kindergarten teaching and environment layout is helpful to preschool education practitioners to change their gender concepts and teaching methods, which is beneficial for children to form inclusive gender concepts and correct gender cognition. This study illustrates the problems and challenges in realizing gender equity in preschool education in China from three aspects: daily teaching of preschool teachers, the kindergarten environment and teaching materials, and the absence of male teachers in preschool education. This paper found that although teachers hold the education concept of “gender neutrality”, the influence of gender stereotypes still exists in the daily teaching, teaching materials, and decoration of kindergartens. Preschool teachers’ different expectations for the roles of children of different genders lead to different degrees of gender-stereotyped impressions, and biased ideas that are reflected in preschool picture books, kindergarten wall decoration, and distribution of children's supplies. Gender stereotypes and prejudice have also caused a serious imbalance in the ratio of male and female preschool teachers and the lack of male teachers in China. However, male teachers play an irreplaceable positive role in shaping the gender concept of children. This study explores the gender bias in preschool education in China and the reasons for the shortage of male preschool teachers and puts forward suggestions and countermeasures for future education implications to reduce gender inequality.

Copyright

© 2022 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Xinyue Lu
PY  - 2022
DA  - 2022/12/29
TI  - Gender Inequality in China’s Preschool Education
BT  - Proceedings of the 2022 6th International Seminar on Education, Management and Social Sciences (ISEMSS 2022)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 2523
EP  - 2530
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-494069-31-2_297
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-494069-31-2_297
ID  - Lu2022
ER  -