Child’s Gender,Parents’ Gender Ideology: Association and Contextual Variation in China

Abstract

The gender of a child is considered an important predictor of parental gender ideology. However, cross-cultural studies suggest opposite directions of such association. For some countries, having daughters is associated with holding a more egalitarian gender ideology, while for others, more traditional gender ideology. In this paper, I use variation within China to try and identify potential contextual features that may explain these patterns. Analyses of a sample of five waves of Chinese General Social Survey data (N = 42,861) demonstrate that having more daughters is associated with a more egalitarian gender ideology. However, the strength of the association is conditional on contextual factors. For those living in areas with lower levels of gender inequality, the daughter is a stronger predictor of egalitarian gender ideology. I introduce the Sensitivity Threshold Hypothesis to explain the heterogeneity in the association and propose a potential causal pathway. This paper highlights the importance of social environments in studying attitude transformation and life-course events.

Keywords

gender ideology reverse socialization daughter effect attitude formation parenthood

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