Gender and habitus: parental involvement in students' subject choices in China.

This article employs the concepts of habitus to provide an in-depth analysis of the ways in which gender differences are played out in parents' and students' choices of undergraduate subjects. Studies focusing on how gender and social class reinforce each other in terms of students' undergraduate su...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Publicado en:Journal of Gender Studies Vol. 24; no. 2; pp. 227 - 239
Autor principal: Sheng, Xiaoming
Formato: Artículo
Publicado: Taylor & Francis Ltd Apr2015
Materias:
Acceso en línea:Ver este registro en EBSCOhost
Descripción
Sumario:This article employs the concepts of habitus to provide an in-depth analysis of the ways in which gender differences are played out in parents' and students' choices of undergraduate subjects. Studies focusing on how gender and social class reinforce each other in terms of students' undergraduate subject choices have not been conducted in China. This article reports a mixed method study, comprising a large-scale questionnaire and semi-structured interviews. Drawing on both the quantitative and qualitative data, this study reveals that undergraduate subject choices remain strongly gender-differentiated. The qualitative data show the impact of family habitus, in particular the social-classed views of parents, on the decision-making process. It is noted that social class leads working-class students to make less gender-stereotypical choices than students of the middle-class origin.