Urban Chinese Adolescents' Perspectives on Gender Roles and Differential Treatment – The Significance of Teachers and Schools.

Emerging research has been exploring Chinese boys’ and girls’ upbringing in the complex and evolving gender landscape. However, most existing studies focus on adult perspectives, leaving a gap in understanding Chinese children’s and adolescents’ own experiences and reflections on their gendered upbringing. This study draws on semi-structured interviews with 20 urban Chinese adolescents (50% girls) to investigate how they conceptualize gender and how they come to these understandings. Results suggest that adolescents view school, instead of the family, as a central arena of their own gender socialization. While adolescents were aware of common gender stereotypes, they often resisted definitive conclusions about gender differences, except in the realm of social interactions, where girls were commonly criticized as indirect, and boys were praised for being direct—even when that directness involved aggressive behaviors. Moreover, gender-differential treatment by teachers was consistently reported across schools, with boys assigned more demanding tasks and treated more harshly, while girls were given lighter duties and treated with greater leniency. We discuss how schools reinforce gender norms, create unequal opportunities for skill and group role development for boys and girls, and contribute to the reproduction of unequal gendered power dynamics in the workplace, family, and society.