Blog 7: Women in China Face Rising University Entry Barriers

In Beijing small groups of female, Ms. Xiong being the main one, and a few male protesters have shaved their heads in reaction to a growing trend in Chinese universities. Women are set higher test score standards than men to be accepted into the university. These women find that they are faced with unofficial but widespread gender quotas that favor men. The three women were outraged when the Education Ministry said in August that the practices were in the “national interest.” In all, Ms. Xiong said, about 20 people around China — mostly women but some sympathetic men, too — shaved their heads to protest the rules. No one is quite sure when gender quotas and gender-based admission scores were first implemented; but by now, they appear to be deeply entrenched, according to Chinese news reports that published publicly available admission criteria for the gaokao, the nationwide university entrance exam, as evidence. “In science courses at the China University of Political Science and Law, the bar is at 632 points for women but 588 for men,” the newspaper said, providing other similar examples from other colleges. It was even reported in July that the Shanghai International Studies University had lowered the bar of entry for male applicants to language programs in Hebrew, Arabic, Ukrainian, Korean and Russian.

In America the idea of education comes so freely to many. It is sad to think that in parts of the world education is only good enough for those who meet the standards, and in this case that standard happens to depend on ones gender. The women in Beijing have a harder time than men being accepted into universities because of higher standards. In some of these universities women have to score higher on exams just to be accepted. Other times the women have to score significantly higher on test such as the bar in order to become lawyers. I am assuming that the test that the men and women take are equal in how challenging they are but the different genders are held at different standards. It sounds as if the women have to prove to the university and society that they are as good as the men in whatever field that are wishing to pursue. There is no logical reason why different genders would have to have different qualifications but it seems that that is not stopping the Education Ministry of China.


http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/08/world/asia/08iht-educlede08.html?pagewanted=all