Why a gender perspective is important for early childhood educators in China

Gender stereotypes and cultural norms are the hardest to tackle when it comes to sustaining the impact of development interventions in China. In fact, project leaders have reported that even though women have benefited from social and economic empowerment, traditional gender stereotypes persist. For instance, the imbalanced sex ratio in China shows the mentality of preference for boys in sex selection before birth. But when do such preferences and gender stereotypes emerge? Studies suggest very early in childhood. For example, recent research has found that six-year-old girls tend to believe that boys are smarter than girls are. However, a gender perspective in early childhood education has been largely overlooked in…