Although many scholars have contributed to examine gender inequality on women’s participation to higher education, less attention has been paid to their experiences of inequality at the university, especially less discussion on sexual harassment. My study aims to investigate the extent to which gender inequality is a feature of higher education in China. This study adopts the case study design. Three universities were selected. Documentary analysis, semi-structured interviews and focus group were conducted to investigate female students’ academic and campus experiences from multiple sources. The findings of this study demonstrate the ways in which gender inequality exists in higher education in China. Across the three universities, female students encountered internal competition within their peer group, such as isolating female peers within the students’ residence hall and negative remarks about high-achieving female peers out of jealousy. Sexual harassment existed at these three selected universities, with a lack of published documents relating to handling methods and procedures for such incidents. The majority of interviewed key informants claimed there was no sexual harassment at these universities. However, female students argued that they were often subject to being secretly photographed and stalked by their male peers. In conclusion, this research sheds new light on the little-understood issue of the existence of power relations and the presence of campus sexual harassment cases in Chinese higher education, identifying important future research directions and policy recommendations for relevant stakeholder.

Authors:
Yan Liang, University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom

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Posted by Clive Staples Lewis

Last updated: 2023-02-23 23:45:00

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