Meritocracy, Gender and the ‘One-Child’ Policy

Abstract

This chapter will shed light on gendered opportunities in access to higher education in contemporary China by drawing on data from in-depth individual interviews, which followed upon the survey study in 2007. Moving away from the quantitative analysis on the meritocratic nature of the Gaokao selection, this chapter will bring out the voices from the main participants in the Gaokao-female students on their journey to universities. The quantitative analysis in Chapter 6 and 6 highlight gender as an important variable in affecting the opportunity structure of higher education. It shows that male students are more likely to achieve higher Gaokao scores and to gain access to elite universities than their female counterparts. The meritocracy hypothesis suggests that gender should not be an obstacle if the selection is meritocratic.