Rural Girls’ Educational Empowerment in Urbanizing China

Abstract

Secondary schooling may empower rural girls migrating to the cities in China to control resources, improve family well-being intergenerationally, and become leaders in their communities. Majority Han and minority Mongolian girls live in very different socioeconomic and policy environments, are affected by different schooling, have inherited different gendered cultural norms, and expect to thrive in different socioeconomic and political futures. Interviews exploring their aspirations and agency show that senior secondary schooling enables both Mongolian and Han girls to act forcefully on their own behalf but differences by ethnicity and socioeconomic location. Mongolian girls benefit from Mongolian traditions of valuing women more highly by developing greater independence compared to Han girls, who lack confidence compelled by Confucian patriarchal traditions. Mongolian girls foresee professional futures, although they worry about Mongolian language limitations; Han girls aspire to finding and keeping simple stable work. Implications for diverse educational and economic policies for the two regions are drawn.