Fertility Decline and Educational Gender Inequality in China

Hua Ye, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
Xiaogang Wu, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology

This paper examines the effects of sibship size and configurations on educational gender inequality in the context of fertility declines in China since the late 1970s. Fertility decline reduces sibship size and changes sibship configurations and thus bears important implications for family investment in education and educational gender inequality. Analyses of the data from Chinese General Social Survey (2006) show that, in terms of years of schooling, females are more disadvantaged in families with more siblings, especially when they have younger siblings or brothers. Educational gender inequality is less severe for younger cohorts than for older cohorts due to fertility decline in China. The research demonstrates that educational gender inequality is affected not only by gender egalitarian policies but also by policies designed to reduce fertility rates.