early childhood education gender equality

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• Published: 29 April 2020

Gender equality work in preschools and early childhood education settings in the Nordic countries—an empirically based illustration

• Mia Heikkilä   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-3361-348X 1  

Palgrave Communications volume  6 , Article number:  75 ( 2020 ) Cite this article

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This article aims to describe and find ways to understand the practical gender equality work that is going on to promote gender equality in preschools in the Nordic countries. Gender equality in this article is broadly understood as a process of developing higher “gender awareness” (Lahelma, 2014 Educ Res 56(2): 171–183; Subrahmanian, 2005 Int J Educ Dev 25(4): 395–407) in a preschool organization and the analysis is performed through a poststructuralist understanding of gender. The material consists of 59 interviews, policy document analyses and preschool visits in the Nordic countries and autonomous territories. In order to address the work concerning gender equality in preschools, practices and processes have been analysed in order to achieve deeper understanding of what is done practically. The results are presented as an illustration of how to understand the work done and using this illustration further as a tool for reviewing existing work could be one way of developing gender equality.

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Introduction.

The Nordic countries—Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Iceland (as well as the autonomous territories Åland, the Faroe Islands and Greenland)—are commonly, and by international ratings (World Economic Forum, 2013 ; UNDP, 2014 ), viewed as being some of the areas in the world where gender equality has been ‘achieved’ in some respects. The welfare systems as a societal base in these countries, with common child care as an important part, are often regarded as being a great contributing factor to this. At the policy level, the Nordic countries are doing well concerning gender equality, but what does it look like in terms of the everyday practices of preschools and early childhood education settings? This article poses the question of whether preschools in the Nordic countries can be seen as having processed gender equality in practice . Footnote 1

The question this article poses is studied through the lense of what is done today, since gender equality is here understood as something that cannot be achieved once and for all, rather gender equality needs to be considered an on-going process of working with issues of gender equality in different practices.

The mission that Nordic preschools have through national policy is to give all children a gender equal education. Girls and boys should be regarded as equal learners and they should be treated equally in education. Gender equality as an educational base means that girls and boys are considered equal intellectually and emotionally, and co-education is a well-established principle. According to policy documents girls and boys should not be separated in any terms of learning and development. In addition to this, schools must provide children with proper and equal care and a feeling of security, and this must also be done on gender-equal terms. A large body of research has in different ways highlighted (the lack of) gender equality in practice in the school system in the Nordic countries (cf. Nordic Council of Ministers, 2005 ; Wernersson, 2009 ; Brunila and Edström, 2013 ; Bjerrum Nielsen, 2014 ; Öhrn and Holm, 2014 ; Arnesen et al., 2014 ).

An analysis of the Nordic countries’ national curricula further suggests that there are some differences in how issues of gender equality are regulated, which has implications for the gender equality work done locally (Stromquist, 2013 ). The differences are still formed through the welfare state idea of schools being equal for all children/pupils, which make these countries still comparable.

This article analyses a selected number of empirical examples provided from a data corpus collected in all Nordic countries. The aim is to describe and find ways to understand the practical gender equality work that is going on to promote gender equality in preschools in the Nordic countries. The limitations of this research are obvious—the selected examples cannot give a total picture of the work done in preschools in Nordic countries, but it can show tendencies and directions. The selection of examples is done together with engaged colleges in these countries.

The research question asked is: How can gender equality work in Nordic preschools be described and understood when analysing a number of practical examples?

Perspectives on gender equality and gender equality work

Gender equality work can be understood in line with Scandinavian ‘gender pedagogy’ and with Lahelma’s ( 2014 ) analysis. The theoretical perspectives used here combines a post-structural understanding of gender as a negotiable category in education (Skelton and Francis, 2009 ) with how gender in organizations (Acker, 1998 ) can be understood.

Social contexts and the people in such contexts are not stable and inflexible, but act in contexts of negotiation and flexibility of how to understand the world. This imposes different ways of understanding and organizing gender equality work. Such gender equality work can be seen in line with a continuous process of developing ideas, teaching methods, evaluation tools, etc., in a social context where children, students and educational staff are central operators and agents (Aikman et al., 2011 ; Aikman and Rao, 2012 ). In these processes existing ideas of girls and boys become visible and might need to be developed in order to meet the requirements of national policy. How this is done is the issue of this article.

Lahelma ( 2014 ) makes a distinction between different discourses around gender equality issues in schools. Lahelma’s ( 2014 ) claims that discourses around gender that are established in preschools and schools are seen as influencing what kind of work is done to affect gender equality. Lahelma calls these discourses ‘gender equality discourse’ and ‘boy discourse’. She sees the ‘gender equality discourse’ as focusing (globally) on the position of girls and women, whereas ‘boy discourse’ concentrates on the gender gap in what she calls ‘achievement, attainment and behaviour’, putting focus on the individual pupil (see also Bradbury, 2011 ; Hadjar et al., 2014 ). The latter can be seen as dominant in Nordic schools today. Lahelma suggests, instead of having this dual understanding of gender in schools, there should be a broader understanding of gender through a more general ‘gender awareness’-approach, which also includes gender as being intertwined with other categories of differences (Hellman et al., 2014 ). Establishing ‘gender awareness’, as Lahelma puts it, would strengthen the organizational understanding of gender since gender then needs to be understood in a context, such as preschool. ‘Gender awareness’ cannot then be achieved without seeing gender as a process in the everyday life of the organization. Gender equality work then needs to be seen as an area where theories of gender are converted into practice and translated into gender equality development tools.

Subrahmanian ( 2005 ) reminds us about rights within education, i.e. gender-aware educational environments, processes and outcomes, and rights through education, i.e. meaningful education outcomes that link education equality with wider processes of gender justice. Subrahmanian ( 2005 ) thus analyses gender equality both within and through education and promotes a wider perspective of the field.

Literature of gender equality work in preschools and schools

Gender equality related to preschool and school issues can be addressed and conceptualized in a number of different ways, and it is usually done by scrutinizing aspects of gender relations in school environments (Wrigley, 1992 ; Thorne, 1993 ; Francis, 2000 ; Blaise, 2005 ; Paechter, 2007 ; Fennell and Arnot, 2007 ; Wernersson, 2009 ; Blaise, 2010 ; Blaise and Taylor, 2012 ; Bjerrum Nielsen, 2014 ). The issues raised within the area of education in relation to aspects of gender relations are multi-dimensional and complex (Subrahmanian, 2005 ). In order to accomplish gender equality in practice in preschools and schools, gender therefore needs to be looked at and studied in that way—as multi-dimensional and complex processes implemented in everyday life in preschools and schools.

However, neither Nordic research nor international research has focused on how gender equality work can be carried out and understood in preschools; instead, the focus has been on how gender relations can be described and analysed (Wernersson and Ve, 1997 ), as mentioned above. There are studies on gender equality work and how it can be implemented (cf. Davies, 2003 , Karlsson and Simonsson, 2008 , Sandström et al., 2013 ), but it is hard to find studies analysing the practical work. The lack of research has had the implication in practical work in the Nordic countries that many schools and preschools lack research-based methods. Empirical analyses of gender equality work in preschools and schools are very hard to find (Frånberg, 2010 ), and it is not possible to find research-based methods to use when promoting gender equality in schools (Bondestam, 2010 ).

Preschools are multi-contextual in terms of communication, widely understood, and in every communicative event gender equality can occur, be challenged or reproduced. In communication constant gDaviesender negotiations take place through multi-dimensional social positioning, and sometimes these processes and positionings are, from a gender point of view, contradictory. This justifies a poststructuralist understanding of gender (Paechter and Clark, 2007 ; Davies, 2006 ), as constantly negotiated and reproduced through language and interaction processes. This makes it uninteresting to try to find one method that can be used to promote gender equality—rather, there is a need to find ways to understand processes of gender equality work as a way to further develop the possible gender orders taken by children.

This research study that is reported here can be seen as an ethnographic, multi-case study.

The corpus of data in this article consists of selected preschools in the Nordic countries that in different ways have worked to promote gender equality, according to their conceptions of it. Different preschools and school actors in all the Nordic countries were invited to take part in this study, and after processing the replies given by these organizations, governments and preschools to our inquiries, a number of preschools were found that we could study more closely by visiting them and by interviewing people who represented them. As a consequence, visits to Esbo in Finland, Mariehamn in Åland, Falun and Malmö in Sweden, Odense and Copenhagen in Demark, Torshavn in the Faroe Islands, Reykjavik and Akureyri in Iceland and Nuuk in Greenland were conducted. There were three of us doing the actual collection and compilation of the material. Even though data collection took place in 2012–2013 this analysis can still be accurate and of importance, since the character of gender equality work does not change rapidly. As argued, the lack of studies concerning the actual gender equality work makes analysis like this valuable.

In order to gather material that could be used as one corpus, there was continuous discussions and revisions of the ethnographic method of collection of data. The goal of producing one corpus meant that it had to be possible to put interviews side by side and compare them, and that one person’s field notes could be understood in relation to another’s (cf. Delamont, 2014 ; Mills and Morton, 2013 ). This meant that we used a common interview guide for our semi-structured interviews, and all of us used observation protocol when visiting the preschools. Questions that were common to all three of us concerned what kind(s) of gender equality work was done, the regularity of the gender equality work, why the method(s) had been chosen, what the experiences of the work were, what the goals of the work were and if they had experienced any resistance to the work. The follow-up questions varied. There were also background questions asked concerning the preschool itself and how long the work had been going on, etc. It still demanded close contact and constant reasoning of the collected data between us three collecting the data.

The material consists of 59 semi-structured interviews with teachers, preschool teachers, preschool staff, municipality staff, 11 school unit visits and around 40 different policy documents and a number of photos. The empirical material consists of notes and photos, various documents, semi-structured interviews with different representatives of the preschools while being showed around (some of them recorded) and preschool visits. Since the interviews were conducted mostly in Swedish (some were in English), the excerpts have been translated and the use of language is revised in order to make the content of the excerpts clear.

The ethical considerations were done according to the Swedish Research Council’s ( 2011 ) recommendations. All needed consents were collected with all participants of the study. The Swedish Research Council ( 2011 / 2017 ) do not require a documented consent as part of good research practice, and since this research was conducted in Sweden the Swedish practice have been followed. All participants that were interviewed were informed of their rights to at any time stop the interview without prior notice, and without risking any kind of consequence. All participants were promised secrecy, confindentiality and they were informed of the purpose of the study. The children that were photographed were, before to the photo was taken, informed of the study and its purpose, as well as their right not to be part of the photo without any consequence or explanation.

Analysis of the material

In the present study, the gender related rights within education are broadly analysed supported by Subrahmanian’s ( 2005 ) suggested perspectives: learning content, teaching method and process, subject choice, assessment modes, management of peer relationships and learning outcomes. Related as it is to Lahelma’s critique of achievement as a parameter of understanding gender equality at schools, which has been domination the public discussion during the last years, Subrahmanian’s approach of considering achievement as being one of many aspects of gender equality at schools/in education is followed. Subrahmanian’s perspectives where used as an analytical lense when reading through all transcripts and all narratives.

The analysis was performed mainly by having the research questions and earlier research closely in mind with reading both the narratives and the transcribed interviews. Analytical questions, used to ‘zoom in’ on the data, combined with Subramanian’s perspectives, based in the research question, to the material was: How is gender equality work described in this context? What understandings of gender are revealed? Is gender quality work seen as a project or a process? The first readings of the material revealed the range of approaches within the material. Several readings where done in order to find relevant categories that would illustrate the rich material. The idea of using a house as a metaphor emerged in this process.

This article presents as its result an empirically based analysis of gender equality work in the form of an illustration. The illustration puts gender equality work in a preschool context and at the same time offers a way to see gender equality work as changing organizations.

It is not possible to find one universal method for gender equality work and that the illustration includes a number of different approaches with common characteristics. Though, it is argued here, the work in Nordic preschools should follow national curricula as well as the current knowledge on how gender in preschools is presented, represented and stated today.

Three different stages of gender equality work in preschools

The result of this study is illustrated in the form of three houses in Fig. 1 . The first house is called ‘the private stage’, the second house ‘the internal stage’, and the third house ‘the external stage’, and these will be presented in this section. The houses are metaphors for different stages of the local work done in a preschool or municipality concerning gender equality. The stages are hierarchal in that they see a more developed and complex way of working to promote gender in the external stage compared with work seen in the private stage. Theoretically, it can be seen that the preschools at the external stage level are more flexible in their way of considering gender roles and how they should be displayed by children.

Analytical illustration of key aspects of gender equality work in education.

In terms of a general result, it can be said that in the Nordic countries the activities carried out to promote gender equality are either staff-focused or student-focused. It is seldom a combination of both. Overall, most work for gender equality is focused on qualitative change, i.e. aimed at bringing about a change in attitudes and therefore highlighting the need for knowledge about how gender is a part of how education, seen in a broad sense, is organized (Subrahmanian, 2005 ). The quantitative focus is mostly used in the general ‘talk of gender equality’ and when highlighting today’s reality, such as the gender gap in educational achievement, or when discussing gender-stereotyped educational choices for upper secondary school.

The house illustration in Fig. 1 shows five key aspects of work done, and the three stages of the process. The ‘stages’ are seen as organizational, analytical arenas where work is located and carried out. Although they are depicted as different stages in the illustration, in practice, they are both parallel and overlapping processes. These stages and key aspects are empirically based findings of this study, collected in this illustration.

This illustration is intended to show, firstly, that the private stage involves instability and introversion and that the content of gender equality is unclear. The letters are therefore placed beside each other in an unstable way. Secondly, the internal stage has some peepholes for transparency and collaboration. The content of the work being carried out is still slightly wobbly and sometimes perhaps a little back-and-forth. Clear frames and a straight and stable work structure, however, characterize the external stage; there are also windows and doors for transparency where new impressions can come in and be communicated to others. The direction of the gender equality work is clearly forward and upward, which is reflected by the arrow.

Five key aspects as part of the three stages

Five key aspects were found in the material that related to all three stages of gender equality work. The analysis of the empirical material shows that the preschools all addressed gender equality aspects, but in very different ways, corresponding to the overall perspective of the gender equality work done.

The work for gender equality studied here relates to a development process in different ways. The key aspects of this process were/are:

Epistemological understanding—approaches to and awareness of gender knowledge (both in relation to curriculum issues and gender knowledge).

Management support—principals and preschool leaders/local politicians who clearly support the efforts made and believe in the ongoing gender equality work.

Goal setting for gender equality work—including the follow-up of goals.

Organization around the work to be carried out—including available resources and assuring that the importance of gender equality is understood by the staff.

Development climate—degree of dialogue and collaboration amongst the teaching staff.

The order in which these key aspects have been listed reflects the priorities for how success and sustainability in the development work can be achieved according to organizational work (Acker, 1998 ).

These aspects guide the presentation of the stages and their characteristics.

The private stage

The private stage is the first stage in the illustration. The label ‘private’ indicates that gender equality work appears to be a private matter for a teacher. Gender equality is here mostly concerned with individuals’ private dilemmas in life, and the work done for gender equality is a matter for enthusiasts and not a concern of the organization as a whole. The ways the five key aspects are materialized in the private stage are that there is no organization of the work done, meaning that there is, for example, no explicit management support, no special resources for the work and no explicit goals to strive for concerning gender equality at that preschool. The analysis show that there was also weak knowledge of the curriculum or other guidelines concerning how gender equality was regulated, combined with weak support from the particular organization/unit. There was no collaboration with others, and barely within the unit—only sporadic discussions and talking about gender issues combined with a tendency towards simple explanations as to why gender matters and why gender dilemmas occur. There was no follow-up of the work done.

As this description of the analysis shows, the private stage means that work for gender equality is initiated and run by individual teachers or staff in a preschool and based on their own interest. These teachers have become aware of the issue and work at it because of their private interest. The work done has no basis in the preschool organization. This ‘private interest’ can also apply to the other stages if the work is initiated by an individual teacher, but if that is done ‘in conjunction with’ the other key aspects, the process is likely to be incorporated into the preschool’s regular activities or given its own distinct organization.

The equality work done is not referred to as such because it does not result in specific discussions or thoughts about development work but is more like a private initiative. It does not affect everyone and is not done in order to develop quality aspects of the preschool. One of the teachers described their work with gender equality concerning the first key aspect like this:

Interviewer (I): Have you read any literature? In what ways have you deepened your knowledge of gender issues?

Teacher (T): We continuously read different things, non-fiction, but we don’t follow any special method or thought. We read a lot about outdoor education here.

I: Hmm. Have you read any texts on gender equality, or in other ways discussed gender equality?

T: No, not really, we haven’t done that. We continuously read articles in our union magazine and in newspapers. We have been thinking. But we don’t have the idea that we need to know that much about gender equality. We have read different things, things someone in our teacher group finds, and finds interesting at the moment. But there are some things that bother us a lot, and that is the boys and the choices they make. That girls choose as they do, we understand, since we are women ourselves, and we look at ourselves to understand them.

This excerpt shows how the teacher does not see knowledge of gender equality as something to engage in more deeply, but as a question concerning individual children, in this case ‘the boys’. The teacher also says that they can understand some children and their needs based on their own experience.

Here there are no resources assigned, no specific organization developed, or any goals formulated. The objectives with regard to gender that have been stipulated in the curricula and other regulatory documents are not reflected in the work done. Knowledge of gender equality is weak and, in some cases, grounded in newspaper articles or features on the TV news, as seen in the excerpt above. There are few, if any, common reference points that staff can relate to with regard to gender equality.

The leadership of the preschool organization may not even be aware that some teachers work with the issue of gender or have started projects and, perhaps for that reason, no special financial support is put aside for this for teaching assistants or literature costs. Since at the private stage, work for gender equality is ‘private’, there is neither cooperation nor joint collegial discussions on the issue. The discussions that do occur are sporadic and not based on any plan or goals. The work that is being done is neither documented nor evaluated and does not therefore involve any elements of systematic work process. Low level of gender knowledge, and simple explanations are one of the aspects that is significant for the private stage. One example of this is when teachers are asked about dilemmas, they identify concerning gender, and the answer is lack of male teachers. The following argument is that male teachers are needed because female teachers prevent boys’ development and learning. According to the level of knowledge today concerning male teachers (cf. Skelton, 2003 ; Heikkilä, 2016 , 2018 ) it is spread that a more nuanced picture is needed concerning explanations of male teachers and boys’ learning.

During some of the visits it became clear that there is a total lack of gender equality work, since gender separation was not considered a problem or dilemma. There was a solid understanding of gender as biologically determined and unimportant for educational institutions to deal with.

The internal stage

The analysis of the material shows that gender-related work most commonly occurs at the internal stage, meaning that most preschool narratives were seen to create these materializations of the five key aspects. At the internal stage, i.e. concerning the management of a preschool, it was possible to identify in the material that the teachers were sometimes led to believe that the work was both visible to others and sustainable in a way that could bring about some change. A closer analysis of a unit or organization revealed that the internal stage consisted of an incipient organization with weak management support (someone may have an assignment to promote gender equality). There were sporadic resources that were determined from input to input and a limited number of internal goals for the gender equality work done. There were no general outcomes of the work done, and it was common that there was only a vague knowledge of the curriculum concerning gender equality issues. There was no clear structure for who was responsible for the work done and seldom any collaboration with other preschool or school units concerning gender equality issues. There were only sporadic conversations at meetings concerning gender equality and a ‘trial-and-error’ approach (do what you think seems good) concerning the interventions done. Few, if any, follow-up activities were carried out, and they were always limited in terms of time.

For a preschool at this stage, the responsibility for gender equality work may be assigned to one specific teacher, or several teachers, by the preschool’s management. However, clear goals are rarely formulated, and gender equality work is not carried out as a process or as part of the overall quality work for the preschool, but rather as isolated or practical events. There is awareness of the curricula and similar documents, but they are not used systematically in order to strengthen gender equality. The work done is mostly voluntary, which has the consequence that there is seldom a shared vision or a team of colleagues to build up knowledge and experience. At the preschool where the following citation comes from, gender equality work is seen as an ethical issue regarding the children:

We bring the gender issue to the children early. We talk about gender equality through philosophical talks. We talk about it as an ethical issue. You can actually talk to children about this quite early! We have, for instance, also put up a checklist concerning gender when choosing books to read with the children, so that you don’t forget to bring it up with them.

Apparently, gender equality was not considered as something for the whole preschool, but regarding the ethical and philosophical aspects of the preschool.

Activities or efforts regarding preschools at this stage are carried out on the basis of interest: those who are interested participate. If something concrete is done to create change in the organization, it is more on a ‘trial and error’ basis, rather than as a consequence of the evaluation of past experiences or experience from other organizations or from studying research.

Another empirical example is described in a more narrative way and refers to one of the visits that were done. The visit was done to a compulsory school having gender equality through gender division as their main idea as how to accomplish gender equality. Even though the visit was to a compulsory school, there are preschools within this concept working in similar ways as does the school.

During the visit it became clear that girls and boys are taught separately, in separate classrooms, with separate entrance halls and other ways to keep girls and boys apart, such as lines on the floor marking where girls and boys should not pass. During the day girls and boys meet short times singing together and having breaks together. But the overarching idea of the school was that girls and boys need to learn slightly different things, since they are brought up in a gender separate society that allows them to become good at, and skilful at different thing. As an example, girls need to practice climbing in trees and being more physical, and boys should practice how to be more caring and sew.

The analysis of this school organization is that it is very fixed and stable and can be described as isolated although there are several schools and preschools working with these ideas. They are all owned by the same person. The isolation can be understood in terms of lack of new ideas and collaboration done with others. The knowledge of gender is a quite limited and simple explanations are offered to what can be seen as complex dilemmas concerning gender identity.

At the internal stage, there is no regular cooperation with any other preschool or school unit, although cooperation occurs occasionally. Some documentation is done, and when this documentation is asked for it seems to be available somewhere, although it can be unclear where exactly that is. Resources for gender equality work are not available, although resources can be found for special projects; but when the funding runs out, these projects seldom lead to anything sustainable in the organization. Work for gender equality at the internal stage can occur in one preschool or school unit or at the municipal level, but it seldom lasts.

The external stage

The last stage is called the external stage. The preschool units that were constructing this stage were characterized by gender equality work with a high degree of structure, transparency and communication. It can be materialized as well-prepared organizational work with strong and recurring management support combined with external resources available for gender equality work. There were also goals from internal and external players, such as politicians who had strongly desired outcomes from the work. There was good knowledge of curriculum goals and a clear structure for the gender equality work. There was collaboration, both with internal and external actors and openness in the work done. The interventions made were based on experience and research; complex explanations of gender equality were seen as continuous processes/operations.

As the name suggests, this stage is characterized by the work being both external and internal in the school organization. The external aspect through communication and transparency is here analysed as something that is more likely to bring sustainability to gender equality development work. The internal aspect reflects that work done at the school consists of work done with students and teachers in different ways, but that it is open and flexible.

There is external support from politicians and school management, and resources are available for the work to be carried out. There are also externally formulated goals and expectations that the school organization will work with gender equality. The organization around the work is stable, and all teachers at a school are expected to participate, though possibly to different degrees:

Interviewer: Is there something that has changed in the organization? You have had a goal that has been quantitatively measured.

Civil servant: At the beginning it was stated, concerning awareness, in our documents: “the educators are becoming aware”. Now it is said in the same kinds of documents (in the budget 2012): “It is therefore our clear ambition that more and more of the municipality’s schools will actively take part in gender equality development work”. So now the focus is more on developing schools, rather than educational and pedagogical awareness. So, for a school, this is quite a comprehensive process you sign up for.

In this short extract, a civil servant from a municipality describes their process and keeps it at an organizational level, as in the previous excerpt. But the difference is that this person talks about the development of the organization as a means to achieving a goal concerning gender equality, a goal that is well-known in the organization.

Another example is a smaller city working thoroughly with gender equality by offering preschools and schools a ‘gender certificate’. In order for a school to get the gender certificate teachers are required to get gender education on regularly arranged lectures. It is also required of the preschools and schools to formulate a gender equality plan for the preschool or school.

One of the managers of one preschool that has a gender certificate says:

Interviewer: Would you claim it is a difference for the children attending a gender certificated preschool compared with other children?

Manager: Yes. Because our children...well, there is no guarantee, but our children do not get to hear that there are limits because you are a boy or a girl, all doors should be wide open to all children. The children should have an adult standing beside them telling them to try and test as many different things and interests as possible. Try! Feel! How did it feel doing that? And since we work with these gender issues, we have focused a lot on self-confidence. Encouraging girls to do certain things, mostly.

Further the manager tells how parents have been involved in the work at meetings, and how politicians in the city have been interested in the work. What is significant for this preschool, and for the idea of the gender certificate, is that it is a visible work, influenced by recent gender knowledge and well organized.

Work within the external stage is characterized by regular and frequent collaboration with others. As an ongoing process, work for gender equality is on its way to being integrated into the regular preschool activities. Activities carried out at the external stage build on evaluated experience or research. Knowledge is communicated efficiently, the efforts undertaken are part of a process, and the actions are rarely, if ever, ad hoc. Gender equality is seen as an area of knowledge, and the organization contributes to the development of this knowledge through its own follow-up research, e.g. in the form of research circles or action research. There is continuous and comprehensive documentation aimed at promoting the development of knowledge. Work within the external stage always takes place in a larger context—in a municipality or region—where preschools carry out gender equality development work together and exchange ideas within that framework.

Conclusions

It is difficult to draw general conclusions about gender equality work in preschools in the Nordic countries. On the one hand, policy level work that seeks to strengthen the overall quality of the schools comprises aspects that strengthen gender equality; on the other hand, the results of this study show that there are hardly any examples of schools or municipalities that have systematically worked with gender equality. The data shows how hard it is to find preschools that have worked for a longer time, with clear aims and goals or with systematic knowledge development concerning gender equality, just to mention a few areas that represent aspects to have in mind when creating a systematic work. The same picture has emerged previously when it comes to gender equality within schools (Subrahmanian, 2005 ).

The results of this study and the illustration used raise the question of how closely related gender equality work is carried out in relation to so-called general development work with the aim of accomplishing different kinds of changes in educational organizations (cf. Aikman et al., 2011 ). The effects of gender equality work in preschools are therefore difficult to evaluate.

Lahelma ( 2014 ) called the dominant discourses around gender equality in schools ‘gender equality discourse and ‘boy discourse’. The ‘gender equality discourse’ focuses (globally) on the position of girls and women, whereas the ‘boy discourse’ concentrates on the gender gap in what she calls ‘achievement, attainment and behaviour’. The analysis in this article can exemplify how the five aspects of the work done are other dimensions of understanding the concrete work carried out, whereas Lahelma’s ( 2014 ) discourses focus on the content of the work done. Subrahmanian ( 2005 ) places gender equality work either within or through school, which here can be related to the three stages created in the analysis. The three stages can be said to be a way of combining the within and the through —not separating them.

The material in this study clearly indicates that in the Nordic countries and autonomous territories there is no standard or uniform approach or method for working with gender-related issues in preschool practice. The question can also be whether there even should be? The answer can be partly no, and partly yes. No, because every context when using poststructuralist understanding of gender needs to be understood from its perspective. Yes, because all preschools in the Nordic countries have an assignment which gives them common expectations of achieving gender equality. The objectives stipulated by policy documents vary, yet all promote the idea of equality in school, which makes it possible to co-analyse the work done in these countries. The lack of a single approach need not be a problem, either, because the local needs are supposed to govern what is done and how.

This study highlights need for further research concerning how gender equality work is systematically done, and how gender equality work is combined with general development work. There might be a discrepancy here concerning how gender equality work might be seen as more unnecessary than other development work. There is also need for further research concerning how policy implicates practical work done concerning value based issues as well as research of how gender equality work is best done. This study gives some results but further research is needed.

In this study, previous research and gender theories are embedded in both the construction of the empirical material and its analysis. This can be criticized for different reasons. Firstly, an obvious critique is that the validity of the analysis is questionable. However, the principle of equality is a shared and fundamental principle in the Nordic countries' educational legislation and policy documents. The goal can be interpreted as meaning that teachers must not differentiate between students on the basis of any category they may fall into; instead, they should use the students’ identities as a strength in their learning processes. Systematic ways of understanding gender equality are one way of achieving that.

Data availability

Data material and information that underpins this study are interviews (transcriptions of interviews) and policy documents, as well as pictures. According to the consent given by the participants of this study this material cannot be shared to other researchers, but can be handed out for observation by the author of this manuscript in Stockholm, Sweden.

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Heikkilä, M. Gender equality work in preschools and early childhood education settings in the Nordic countries—an empirically based illustration. Palgrave Commun 6 , 75 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-020-0459-7

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Early Childhood Education and Care from a Gender Perspective

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Early childhood interventions are frequently framed as investments with important benefits in terms of children’s health, nutrition, cognitive development and school readiness. Gender equality and the rights of adult women—as unpaid family caregivers whose lives, by default, must accommodate child-centered interventions and as childcare workers staffing such programs—are often given a short shrift in such narratives. At the global level, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development urges us to think about these issues in an integrated fashion by recognizing the universal and interrelated nature of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and their related targets, including those on unpaid care, early childhood education and decent work for women and men. Yet, policies to achieve these goals are often discussed in separate epistemic communities with different approaches to early childhood education and care (ECEC). Conceptions of ECEC as a ‘cost-effective’ investment or as a social right, as a tool for improving child development or also as an alternative to family care, affects program design and implementation, with important implications for women’s rights as paid and unpaid caregivers. Although these divides are pervasive at both the global and the national level, this chapter shows that countries can find pathways for strengthening rights-based and gender-responsive ECEC services, drawing on case studies from Chile, Ecuador and Tamil Nadu (India). Rather than providing specific policy blueprints, global actors should support processes of debate, problem solving and experimentation that create context-specific, nationally owned solutions aimed at the progressive realization of rights for both women and children.

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Staab, S. (2019). Early Childhood Education and Care from a Gender Perspective. In: Kjørholt, AT., Penn, H. (eds) Early Childhood and Development Work. Palgrave Studies on Children and Development. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-91319-3_4

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The importance of gender in early childhood education policy

Subscribe to the center for universal education bulletin, jin chi jin chi 2018 echidna global scholar - the brookings institution, program specialist - unesco international research and training centre for rural education (inruled), associate professor - center for teacher education research, kis, moe, beijing normal university.

November 5, 2018

The international development community has placed adolescent girls and secondary schooling at the center of girls’ education policy, and has given less attention to gender realities of girls and boys in early childhood. This oversight begs the following question: Can gender and education issues at primary, secondary, and tertiary levels and beyond be tackled without paying attention to interventions in the early years? My project at Brookings highlights the gaps and opportunities in bringing a gender perspective into early childhood teacher policy, particularly in the context of China, where I have been working in the field of girls’ education and early childhood development for many years.

Policymakers and educators worldwide should not underestimate the importance of early childhood education on the development of deeply engrained gender norms. It is important to consider the cognitive and affective formation of gender identity which develops in early childhood. The types of skills, personality attributes, and career aspirations learned through teacher-child interactions and childhood play can form stereotypical masculine and feminine attitudes toward gender roles , which develop before adolescence.

Evidence shows that educators need to have gender awareness to be open to girls’ and boys’ choices in learning and development, help children explore who they are, and make connections to people around them, as well as gain self-confidence, well-being, peer acceptance, and social support. Research in Asia and Africa on teachers’ attitudes and expectations toward girls’ performance in mathematics and science has shown that training teachers with a gender-sensitive approach can improve equal participation of all children in a learning environment. In spite of this, actual policy and practice on incorporating a gender perspective in early childhood teacher training has been overlooked.

Education and gender equality in China has been grounded in the promotion of girls’ education in compulsory education. Despite the achievement in gender parity and in some cases that girls outperform boys in primary and secondary education, gender gaps in China persist. Additionally, the preference for boys, for example, resulted in the world’s most imbalanced sex ratio. This contributed to China’s rank at the bottom of the health and survival indicator on the Global Gender Gap Index , which measures economic participation, educational attainment, health and survival, and political empowerment. Outcomes such as this are heavily tied to gender inequalities rooted in deeply entrenched gender norms, which demand gender awareness in teaching and learning in the early years.

In order for China to fulfill its education plan and achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals set forward by global education agendas, it not only needs to support girls’ and boys’ development of core competencies, but also their long-term cognitive and socio-emotional development—free from gender constraints. As China makes rapid progress in early childhood education and develops policy to build up the teacher force, it is important to have pathways to incorporate gender equality into teacher policy.

Drawing from a review of China’s early childhood care and education (ECCE) policies and global examples, my discussion paper concludes by outlining policy pathways at the system and teaching level in China. These pathways include establishing a local approach for ECCE teacher training in poor rural areas, and a strong teacher support network focused on sharing technology-based learning resources, content knowledge, and pedagogical practices to ensure gender-responsiveness in ECCE teaching and learning.

Issues around gender equality, quality education, early learning, and poverty reduction are at the top of many international organizations’ agendas. Adding a focus on gender in ECCE, especially for the role of teachers, may be of interest to international adolescent girls’ initiatives to transform gender stereotypes and cultural norms through early interventions. It could also help make gender issues in the international arena more visible.

In summary, incorporating a gender perspective into early childhood teaching unlocks children’s potential at the very foundation of their development, and the policy value goes far beyond teacher policy itself. It can build a sustainable approach to gender equality and quality education, and foster the development of human resources for the whole society. With a little effort, the impact can go a long way.

In this video, Jin Chi, 2018 Echidna Global Scholar, describes the importance of gender in early childhood education policy around the world and particularly in China.

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Promoting Gender Equality and Women Empowerment

Importance of Introducing Gender Education In Early Childhood

Swagata sen.

• June 7, 2020

Thanks to the increasing number of feminist movements and activism, globally women’s rights and equality have started gaining momentum over the last three decades. Women’s empowerment, now, is an important developmental agenda in most countries. All societies have gradually accepted that women’s equality and empowerment play a pivotal role in the overall development of any country. In spite of the significant progress and development in gender equality, no country has yet achieved true gender parity. Some education policymakers have been strongly advocating for introducing gender education in early childhood to achieve gender equality and break gender stereotypes. 

How Children Learn About Gender Roles, Gender Norms, and Relations

Gender Norms  are ideas about how people of a particular gender in a specific society or community should behave. Gender norms are the building blocks of gender identity and gender stereotyping. Whereas  Gender roles are different socially attributed responsibilities, attitudes, and behaviors of each gender.  Gender relations are relations between men and women, and how power and access to resources are distributed between men and women.

Research shows that the  concept of gender in children forms between the ages of three and seven . During the early developmental phase, children form an understanding of gender norms, identities, and stereotypes based on their experiences within their families, schools, and surroundings.

Read: Gender Equality Begins At Home: A Personal Reflection

There are gender expectations and standards that kids internalize very early. They are exposed to these norms and standards in books, cartoons, movies, TV shows, print, and digital commercials! For instance, women are sexually objectified in TV and digital commercials all over the world. Toxic male masculinity, male dominance, and eve-teasing are typically glorified in stories, novels, and films in all cultures. 

If a child is exposed to certain experiences as a part of his/her normal developmental dynamics, they tend to normalize it and develop plenty of unconscious biases towards that experience.  Children grow up to replicate those experiences in their lives as adults. For instance, young Kids exposed to gender-based violence at home or in the community internalized those experiences, and tend to repeat them as adults. The same is true for gender power dynamics, gender roles, or behaviors. Boys growing up in a household where males do not participate in domestic work, usually find it difficult to do any chores as an adult.

Read: A Step-by-Step Guide for Men to Promote Gender Equality  

There are gender expectations and standards which kids internalize very early. They are exposed to these norms and standards in books, cartoons, movies, TV shows, print, and digital commercials! For instance, women are sexually objectified in TV and digital commercials all over the world. Toxic male masculinity, male dominance, eve-teasing are typically glorified in stories, novels, films in all cultures.

Why Is It Necessary to Introduce Gender Education in Early Childhood?

“Yes, there are basic behavioural differences between the sexes, but we should note that these differences increase with age because our children’s intellectual biases are being exaggerated and intensified by our gendered culture. Children don’t inherit intellectual differences. They learn them. They are a result of what we expect a boy or a girl to be.”

Education plays a very important role in shaping up a child’s mind.  Early formative years are the best time to imprint deep, meaningful thoughts and connections about breaking stereotypes, by providing children a gender-neutral education through arts, drama, musical, and other formal and informal curricula. The aim of such education should be to train young minds to question, challenge, and counter what they see in society, at home or on TV.

Traditional education curriculum at the elementary and middle school should be carefully designed with a strong gender lens, so that children are not exposed to any gender stereotypes, and they are able to unlearn some of the gender norms and roles they experience outside the school, suggesting the importance of introducing gender education In early childhood.

Early educational intervention  in shifting the ways one handle powers, breaking the connection between masculinity and violence, encouraging boys to share household responsibilities and girls to take up leadership roles, ensuring equal access to opportunities between boys and girls, breaking the stereotype of gender-specific sports, toys, and education could make a huge impact on the gender equality and women’s empowerment of a country. 

Read: Mind The Gender Gap!

Sometimes informal education in the form of role-playing, art, debate, or drama can effectively tap the subconscious mind of children, without them having to deal with the stress of traditional learning. Yet the lessons often leave a deep and long-lasting impression in their minds.

Educating the Educators First 

Teachers and educators play very important roles in helping young children unlearn societal expectations or norms. 

Unfortunately, teachers have their own cultural and traditional prejudices, and biases about gender roles, and norms. Schools and teachers often inflict their gender prejudices and biases on students, sometimes consciously. 

“Social transformation” involves a lot of work on removing our subconscious biases. If a teacher doesn’t believe that societal norms, rules, and responsibilities should be the same for both genders, she/he would not be able to teach the students to ignore gender norms, provide children with counter-narratives, or help them question the status quo.

Thus it’s very important to train and educate the teachers to identify their own biases about how boys and girls are expected to behave, express themselves, or the roles they play. This training should involve unlearning and re-learning different issues. Teachers should be trained to identify how their biases affect their classroom behaviors. Educators of young children should offer their students different perspectives, including those that counter society’s confined constructs. Thus introducing gender education in early childhood should complement the readiness of early childhood educators in teaching gender in schools.

Read: A Critical Point To Think About Gender Leadership Gap  

Early educational intervention in shifting the ways one handle powers, breaking the connection between masculinity and violence, encouraging boys to share household responsibilities and girls to take up leadership roles, ensuring equal access to opportunities between boys and girls, breaking the stereotype of gender-specific sports, toys, and education could make a huge impact on the gender equality and women’s empowerment of a country.

Gender Education in the Present Education System

A huge part of a child’s cognitive and affective formation of identity, personality, and interactions with the outer world happens through school, teachers, and peers. In spite of the immense potential of early childhood education in dismantling the narratives of gender inequality, very little importance is given to including gender education in the school curriculum. 

Read: Girls’ Education: Challenges and Recommendations

Gender inequality and gender discrimination are deeply embedded in every culture as a result of century-old patriarchy. We’ve seen recently how the COVID-19 crisis has disproportionately affected women and girls worldwide. There has been a significant increase in gender-based violence worldwide. Women were also disproportionately impacted by the loss of income, increased burden of domestic work, child and elder care, and loss of their sexual and reproductive rights. Many of these issues are cultural and need a systemic, scientific approach to eliminate them.

Education is one of the strongest interventions of any systemic change. Early education or childhood education is particularly helpful to counter narrate the personal and societal experience, and tap the subconscious minds of boys and girls. Policymakers, educators, and the international development community worldwide should not underestimate the importance of early childhood education in eliminating gender norms, gender-based violence, and discrimination from society.

A clinical researcher by profession, I am an advocate of gender equality and women’s rights. I have created Rights of Equality to dismantle institutionalized gender discrimination and harmful social practices through systemic changes. Over the last few years, our contributors from diverse socio-cultural backgrounds were able to voice their concerns about a range of issues that are oppressive to women across the world. We are hopeful that our efforts will help promote awareness and contribute to changing mindsets and shifting cultures about gender roles and norms.

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20 Comments

I love this. It is important. I always tell my daughter she can do anything a boy can. The same with my son. I always told him if he wanted to wear pink, that’s fine!

Cristina Petrini

In this period of social turmoil, in my opinion it is important to educate young people to respect, in every form. Race, sex, ideas … one cannot be understanding of some things and others not.

Thank you for your comments, Cristina. I totally agree that we can no longer ignore these systemic social injustices and need to educate ourselves and our children about these issues.

Sudipta Dev Chakraborti

An excellent article, and so pertinent to our times. Making young children understand gender equality should be introduced in schools worldwide.

Thanks for your comments and glad that you liked the article. I agree with you that it’s really important for the education policy makers to understand the importance of including gender education in elementary and middle school curriculum in all the countries.

This is such an important topic that should be taught not only in school but also at home. Parents are responsible of shaping the way a child grows up, its personality and understanding, they should be the ones putting that first stepping stone into a gender neutral future.

iemexploring

Very well said! so important! agree that the educators need to learn first

Jessica Collazo

Wow I was thinking about this the other day. I want my daughter, she’s almost 2, to know more about this topic and this is so helpful thank you so much.

Thanks for your comments Jessica. I’m sure your daughter will learn to ignore social gender norms and stereotypes as you are already aware and conscious about this. I strongly believe that #GenderEqualityBeginsAtHome

mischievouswordsbymartaazra

We live in a very traditional town, where even now kids are thought that boys wear blue and girls wear pink. My son loves violet and unicorns while one of my daughters hates pink and all things too girly(what ever those are) I teach them that they can do what ever they want and wear what they like. My son got a broken nose from one of the other boys who made fun of him because he wore a violet shirt with unicorn on it. Then while confronting his dad, the dad said well maybe you should not let your son wear girls things. I almost broke his nose.

This is such an important topic that has to be thought from a young age.

Thank you so much for sharing your personal experience! Many of us are fighting with this kind of gender discrimination and stereotypes! Sorry that your son had to go through this. I strongly believe that he will grow up as a strong and brave human being as he is lucky to have you as his mom! Keep fighting! Good luck with raising gender-neutral kids!

issababycreates

My daughter and I have been watching Mrs. America on Hulu. It’s an interesting show about the Equal Rights Ammendment. Very eye opening.

Academic and cognitive differences in gender. On average, girls are more motivated than boys to perform well in school, at least during elementary school. … By the end of high school, this difference in course selection makes a measurable difference in boys’ and girls’ academic performance in these subjects. Evidence shows that educators need to have gender awareness to be open to girls’ and boys’ choices in learning and development, help children explore who they are, and make connections to people around them, as well as gain self-confidence, well-being, peer acceptance, and social support.

I enjoyed reading your post. Parents should treat all their children equally(whether boy or girl)from the time they are born as children will learn from what parents do and not what they say. Every parent should teach their children through their actions that boys and girls are equal.

Melissa Cushing

I am loving this informative post and yes…. it is ll about early education and teaching the young ones about diversity and equality no matter the color, race or gender. All of the hate filled people out there were taught to feel that way and it is about changing that and spreading and teaching love….not hate.

World In Eyes

Indeed so simply explained..this is really very meaningful and much helpful…Thanks for sharing such valuable information..every child should be aware of this

Prime Beauty Blog (@PrimeBeauty50)

This is an important topic. My grandson is 14 months old and I have him “help” me household chores already.

lattelindsay

If we can teach our kids to count, we can teach about their genders too.

Angela Cardamone @marathonsandmotivation.com

This is such an important topic, but one I had not thought about with early childhood. Very helpful, so glad I came across this post!!!

Hannah Marie

This is so important to teach our children. It’s not always right to let other gender dominate. We all can excel and do things equally.

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Gender Inequality and Early Childhood Development

Gender inequality and early childhood development – a review of the linkages.

Right from birth, gender discrimination affects girls disproportionally. In this report, we describe why gender equality and early childhood development matter. We also explain why early childhood programmes engaging parents, caregivers, community leaders and educators are fundamentally important so girls have the chance to realise their rights and live a life of dignity.

This report examines the impact of gender inequality and discrimination on the survival, healthy growth and early years’ development of girls and boys and the rationale for investing in gender-transformative early childhood programming in order to break the cycle of gender discrimination, promote the rights of girls and boys, and advance gender equality.

Gender-transformative programmes have the explicit intention to transform unequal power relations. Their focus goes beyond improving the condition of women and girls: they seek to improve the social position of girls and women (how they are valued in society) as well as the full realisation of their rights. 

Early childhood is the most important phase of development of a person’s life. This is when cognitive, social and emotional skills are learned, influencing lifelong educational achievement, health and wellbeing. When young girls and boys are denied access to the opportunities, care and services they need to thrive and develop to their full potential, this affects the rest of their lives.

In many communities, gender inequality is one important root cause of children’s poor development in the early years.

Gender discrimination and women’s low status are at the root of women’s limited autonomy and of the denial of their rights to health and bodily integrity: when women suffer poor mental and physical health and limited decision-making power this, in turn, impacts negatively on their children’s survival, healthy growth and development. 

Gender discrimination together with son preference mean that young girls receive less nutrition, opportunities to play and access early learning than young boys.

Furthermore, it is during their first years that girls and boys learn gendered attitudes and expectations, from parents, caregivers, other family members and teachers, about how girls and boys/women and men should behave, their social worth and what their role is in society. As our research shows, in many countries and communities, right from the earliest age boys are prepared for their future role as provider and protector, and girls as mothers and caregivers. Learning these rules and expectations in terms of behaviours and roles can be limiting for all children, but is likely to be particularly limiting for girls.

Programming that supports young girls and boys to develop to their full potential while also working to transform unequal gendered power relations, challenge “traditional” gender socialisation processes, and improve the social position of girls and women offers a key opportunity to break this unjust, inter-generational cycle of gender discrimination, and to advance children’s rights and equality for girls. 

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Body, gender, and sexuality diversity in early years education

At the 2022 Early Childhood Australia National Conference, there was a noticeable interest in body, gender and sexuality diversity (BGSD). BGSD interests are relevant to all early childhood education and care settings.

Identity, including body, gender and sexuality, features prominently in Belonging, Being & Becoming: The Early Years Learning Framework for Australia (EYLF), and Canadian researchers Kristy Timmons and Lee Airton suggest that ‘ample support exists within the profession’s key guiding documents for “gender-expansive” practice, or an approach to teaching children and supporting their development that both expects and sustains gender diversity’ (2020, p. 1). The same can be said for bodies and sexuality. Timmons and Airton—whose work is focused on the Canadian early years framework, but is also applicable to our EYLF—even suggest that there may be legal ramifications for not doing this.

For those who want to catch up, here’s a rundown of the key points from the BGSD talks at this year’s ECA conference. All these sessions are available to watch until 11 December 2022 by registering here .

Sam Newbury

Sam Newbury offered practical ways to explore, discuss and embed gender diversity in early years education through language and literacy. They explained how this can be done at all ages—in a baby room, a toddler room and a kindergarten room. Sam recommended numerous gender diversity books for the different age groups, activities such as a clothes rack , and ways to talk to children about pronouns.

Parent response and engagement with non-binary gender work in early years settings

Lizzie Maughan, Mimi Hayward & Phoebe Zander

Lizzie Maughan, Mimi Hayward and Phoebe Zander shared a case study from an early years classroom at Ngutu College . Each presenter—a researcher/consultant , an early years educator and a parent, respectively—explored the case study from their unique perspective. While many educators fear doing gender-expansion work because of backlash from parents, this presentation gave practical examples of how to engage with and respond to parents.

Dr Agli Zavros-Orr & Peta Fitzpatrick

Agli Zavros-Orr and Peta Fitzpatrick invited us on to the yellow brick road to better understand intersex interests. They encouraged everyone to be aware of the diversity of bodies in our early years education settings and to use language in an aware way. With October being intersex awareness month and 26 October being Intersex Awareness Day they recommended viewing Rob’s story and Noah’s story (both from the ABC), and exploring the extensive resources at Intersex Human Rights Australia .

Queering cultural diversity: Everybody’s business!

Dr Red Ruby Scarlet & Sam Newbury

Red Ruby Scarlet and Sam Newbury’s powerful presentation started with letting us all know that queerness in early years is not a ‘hot topic’—it’s about people’s lives. Their key takeaway was that there is no time for permission. We should not be asking for permission to be ourselves. Asking permission sets people up to say yes or no to people’s identities and this is unacceptable. Raise those rainbow flags, add your pronouns to your email signature, and read The Rainbow Cubby House .

Beyond the rainbow: Connecting, supporting and empowering diverse families

Scott Brunelle, Marly Greenwood & Shae Haylen

Scott Brunelle, Co-Chair of Rainbow Families , parent and volunteer Marly Greenwood, and ECA’s General Manager of Professional Learning Shae Haylen discussed the discrimination and disadvantage often experienced by LGBTQ families. They emphasised the need for ALL families to feel welcome and to proactively create environments that celebrate diverse families, regardless of the current families enrolled in our early years education and care settings.

Timmins, K., & Airton, L. (2020). Welcoming gender diversity in the early years: Interpreting professional guiding documents for gender-expansive practice. Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood .

ECA Recommends:

Register for a virtual pass and see all presentations from the 2022 ECA National Conference when it suits you.

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Lizzie Maughan

One thought on “body, gender, and sexuality diversity in early years education”.

Brilliant synopsis Lizzie! Thankyou for highlighting the importance of this work in real time.. this is now! And it’s do-able, necessary and there are people and resources available to guide educators in BGSD expansive practice! This will only become increasingly evident,and is already well evidenced, and we look forward to increasing conversations and sharing of practice! The updated ALFs will support us further in this work!

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Gender inequality and early childhood development

A review of the linkages.

The Gender Inequality and Early Childhood Development report, prepared by Plan International, examines the impact of gender inequality and discrimination on the survival, healthy growth and early years’ development of girls and boys. The report also sets out the rationale for investing in gender-transformative early childhood programming in order to break the cycle of gender discrimination, promote the rights of girls and boys, and advance gender equality.

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Gender equality, child development and job creation: How to reap the ‘triple dividend’ from early childhood education and care services

Publication year: 2015.

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This brief synthesizes research findings, analysis and policy recommendations for realizing the triple dividend from early childhood education and care (ECEC) services.

ECEC services have come to occupy an important place on the global policy agenda. While some developed countries have long invested in this area, a growing number of developing countries are following suit. As those who carry out the bulk of childcare—as unpaid caregivers as well as service providers in day-care and preschool institutions—women have a huge stake in this issue. However, the implications for women, as mothers or childcare workers, have been insufficiently reflected in the work of international organizations and many national-level policies that tend to focus mainly on children.

Well-designed investments in ECEC services can have major economic and social pay-offs for families, individuals and societies at large by: (a) facilitating women’s labour force participation, (b) enhancing children’s capabilities and (c) creating decent jobs in the paid care sector. But this triple dividend is not automatic. It needs to be built into service design and delivery.

This brief discusses different mechanisms for financing, delivering and regulating ECEC services and highlights promising avenues for realizing the triple dividend. It argues that the key is high-quality childcare that is available, affordable, accessible and compatible with the needs of working parents.

This brief draws on key findings of UN Women’s flagship report, Progress of the World’s Women 2015–2016 .

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Roseline Adewuyi  is a fervent advocate for gender equality in Nigeria, driven by a passion for dismantling entrenched gender stereotypes. She spoke to Africa Renewal’s  Kingsley Ighobor on the need to empower girls through education. This is in line with the African Union’s theme for 2024: Educating and skilling Africa for the 21 st   Century.

Roseline Adewuyi believes that fighting gender inequality requires raising awareness and empowering young women and girls through education.

“My goal is to help break those barriers that limit our potential,” she told  African Renewal  in an interview. “I am talking about issues related to land rights, access to education, economic empowerment, leadership, and trust me, gender discrimination.”

Gender discrimination, she explains, is heightened during times of severe economic constraints such as now, when the tendency is often to invest in boys over girls. “That’s when parents often choose to send their sons to school or provide them start-up funding for business ventures, while daughters are expected to focus on house chores and wait for marriage. It’s absolutely absurd.” she insists. 

Roseline has her work cut out for her. “We are constantly finding ways to help women and girls break free from these constraints.” 

She founded the Ending Gender Stereotypes in Schools (ENGENDERS) project, which is dedicated to unlearning gender stereotypes in educational institutions.

“We reach the students, boys and girls in high schools and universities, and we do community engagement, speaking to parents and other influential community inhabitants,” she explains.

Already, she claims to have reached tens of communities and over 6,000 young girls through seminars and webinars, while her  blog , featuring over 300 articles on gender equity, has garnered a wide audience.

Currently pursuing a Ph.D. in French Literature with a focus on women, gender, and sexuality studies at Purdue University in Indiana, US, Roseline now aims to merge academic rigour with passionate advocacy.

“It’s an interesting intersection,” she says, adding that “The body of knowledge that we pass on to future generations is full of gender stereotypes. Our books need to be gender conscious.

“In most African literature, characters often depict women or girls as housemaids and men as pilots or engineers. It reinforces stereotypes; we need to root it out,” she stresses.

Roseline's journey into gender advocacy began in her childhood, fueled by a belief in the transformative power of education. She recognized the systemic challenges faced by African women and girls, including limited access to education and entrenched cultural biases.

“When I served as a prefect in secondary school, the belief among boys and even some girls was that I did not merit the position, that leadership was reserved for the boys. That experience sparked my curiosity as to why girls weren’t perceived as equally competent as boys.”

In 2019, she worked as a translator and interpreter for the African Union (AU), having been selected as one of 120 young people from various African countries to participate in the AU Youth Volunteer Corps. 

Her exposure to continental leaders' efforts to address gender-related challenges reinforced her conviction that gender equality is essential for achieving sustainable peace and security.

“At the AU, I also realized the connection between gender and peace and security. When there is a crisis, it is women who suffer the most. Therefore, women must be at the centre of efforts to achieve peace in our societies,” she adds.

Her international exposure includes being a participant in the Young African Leaders Initiative in 2016 (YALI – Regional Leadership Center West Africa), as well as being a Dalai Lama fellow in 2018. She says these experiences exposed her to gender best practices and strengthened her resolve to advocate for change in her home country.

Although some advances have been made in gender equality in Nigeria, Roseline highlights that the remaining hurdles include challenges in female land ownership, financial inclusion, and access to education.

“For example, we have laws [in Nigeria] that provide for women’s rights to land, but many communities still prevent them from owning a piece of land. We also have situations in which widows are not allowed to inherit the properties of their husbands. 

She says: “So, we have a lot more work to do. We need effective community engagement in raising awareness among women about their rights.

“Importantly, we need to provide women with access to education to equip them with the knowledge and skills to assert their rights effectively.”

In her ongoing advocacy work, she acknowledges facing cyberbullying, which she attributes to resistance from elements of a patriarchal society reluctant to embrace progress.

Roseline's final message to young African women and girls is for them to drive positive change, stand up for their rights, and challenge gender norms.

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2 signs you grew up with the ‘good girl complex’–from a psychologist.

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Survival mechanisms you developed as a child can be fatal to your spirit in adulthood. Here’s why ... [+] it’s essential to unlearn and redefine what it means to be a “good girl.”

Many women come to therapy feeling suffocated in adulthood by the mold they were cast in in their childhood. They may say things like:

• “I find myself constantly drowning in responsibilities. I barely have time to catch a breath. Self-care is always the last thing on my list.”
• “I always feel an overwhelming sense of guilt when I prioritize myself.”
• “I struggle to voice my opinions or preferences. Nodding along feels like a better option even when I disagree. It’s frustrating.”
• “Despite my achievements, there’s this nagging emptiness inside. No matter what I achieve, it’s just never enough.”

The “good girl complex” is not just a trope but a deeply ingrained pattern that shapes individuals’ lives. From childhood, societal expectations instill the belief that worthiness is tied to conformity, driving a relentless pursuit of perfection or approval. Despite its outward appearance, this complex often conceals a core sense of unworthiness, prompting individuals to sacrifice authenticity for external validation. Manifesting in various forms, it entails a fervent desire to please, conform and avoid conflict.

Therefore, while the good girl complex may promise social acceptance, it also carries risks. Individuals tether their worth to external standards, leading to the suppression of genuine emotions and needs in the quest for validation. Moreover, this suppression can cause a disconnection from one’s true self, breeding inner turmoil.

To free oneself of its grip and cultivate greater self-awareness and empowerment, it’s important to understand its roots. Here are two pivotal elements contributing to the development and persistence of the “good girl complex.”

1. Good Girls Obey Happily

Research posits that societal norms dictate behavior based on gender, perpetuating stereotypes that shape individuals from an early age. For example, the belief that women are inherently more empathetic than men creates expectations for women to be emotionally skilled and caring. This conditioning begins early for girls, often before they have the capacity to fully understand or challenge these norms.

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From childhood, girls are inundated with messages from family, caregivers, media and schools that reinforce traditional gender roles. Toys, clothing and media depict stereotypically feminine traits as desirable, subliminally rewarding girls who conform to these expectations. For example, girls are associated with dollhouses, while boys are linked with building blocks, reflecting societal gender norms. Girls receive accolades for nurturing behavior, while boys are commended for creativity. These subtle reinforcements shape children's perceptions of themselves and others.

Girls are often praised as “sweet” or “helpful,” reinforcing the notion that their value hinges on adhering to societal norms. Conversely, behaviors that deviate from the “good girl” archetype, such as assertiveness or non-conformity, are often met with disapproval.

As girls grow older, societal pressures escalate, pushing them to fulfill roles as caretakers, mediators and peacemakers, often at the expense of their own well-being. This pattern of self-sacrifice not only shapes their relationships but also influences their career paths, leaving little room for pursuing personal goals.

Challenging these entrenched societal norms is essential for breaking free from the “good girl” complex. Here are some strategies for doing so:

• Train your critical thinking muscles. Encourage yourself to critically examine societal messages and expectations regarding gender roles and behaviors. Question and discuss the validity and fairness of these norms, developing your own perspectives rather than blindly accepting societal standards.
• Pursue gender equality. Advocate for gender equality in all aspects of life, including education, employment and social interactions. Work to dismantle systems of oppression and discrimination that perpetuate gender-based inequalities, empowering yourself and others to pursue interests and goals without limitations.
• Lead by example . Model and reinforce behaviors that defy traditional gender norms and promote authenticity and self-empowerment. Encourage open communication, mutual respect and support for individuals’ autonomy and choices, regardless of gender.

2. Good Girls Don’t Scream When Hurt

Traumatic events, whether triggered by emotional neglect, abuse, or abandonment, deeply influence one’s sense of self. For individuals embodying the “good girl” persona, navigating these experiences becomes a daunting task marked by emotional turmoil and existential uncertainty.

In the face of trauma, individuals who embrace the “good girl” archetype often construct elaborate defense mechanisms and survival strategies to cope with internal struggles. For example, consider those who grew up in dysfunctional family environments, witnessing constant parental arguments and consequently experiencing neglect of their own needs. In an effort to maintain peace and gain approval, they take on the role of the “perfect child,” striving to meet expectations and avoid conflict. This pattern continues into adulthood, where unresolved trauma leads them to constantly prioritize others’ needs, fearing rejection if they assert themselves.

However, these coping strategies can become restrictive over time, perpetuating cycles of self-denial and emotional suppression. Research indicates that such mechanisms disrupt natural processes of self-regulation and emotion regulation, sometimes exacerbating symptoms of PTSD and Complex PTSD.

Confronting trauma necessitates dismantling these defenses and embracing vulnerability.

• Develop emotional awareness. Evidence indicates that emotional awareness enhances emotion regulation, social navigation skills, relationship satisfaction and overall physical and mental well-being. By cultivating emotional awareness, individuals can recognize the underlying emotions driving their “good girl” behaviors. They can start to identify patterns of their own emotional suppression. Understanding these patterns marks the initial step in breaking free from the “good girl” complex, as it enables individuals to consciously acknowledge and address their own emotions and needs.
• Embrace vulnerability. Embracing vulnerability involves accepting one’s own imperfections and allowing oneself to be authentic and honest. For individuals trapped in the “good girl” complex, this means letting go of the facade of perfection and acknowledging that it’s okay to have needs and vulnerabilities. Embracing vulnerability can empower individuals to break free from the need to constantly please others and instead focus on being true to themselves.
• Challenge negative beliefs. Given that the “good girl” complex often stems from entrenched beliefs about worthiness and the need to earn love and acceptance through perfection and self-sacrifice, confronting and reframing self-limiting beliefs is essential for healing and growth. This process involves reframing self-limiting beliefs and cultivating a mindset of self-compassion (e.g., treating oneself with kindness and understanding) and personal agency (e.g., taking ownership of one’s choices and actions), which are critical for positive change and transformation.

It can be exhausting to constantly prioritize others over yourself. Shifting the focus to prioritize your own needs may feel daunting at first, especially if it’s an unfamiliar territory. Take it one step at a time and don’t hesitate to seek professional help if you ever feel stuck.

Does the “good girl complex” not let you be yourself in relationships? Take the Authenticity In Relationships Scale to learn more.

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Unmasking inequalities: Delving deeper into the gender pay gap

• 5 Minute Read
• April 19, 2024

Results from PwC’s Women in Work Index (12th edition) 

By Yashi Chowdhary

Since its launch in 2011, PwC's Women in Work Index has been released annually. Covering five key indicators – female labour force participation rate, gender participation rate gap, female full-time employment rate, female unemployment rate and the gender pay gap – the Index measures progress towards gender equality in the labour market across 33* OECD (The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) countries. Its publication each year is an opportunity to celebrate progress – and reassess the pace of change.

Good news, but much more work to be done

On the bright side, the latest Index shows that the average OECD score has improved by approximately two points, from 66 in 2021 to 68 in 2022. This advance was largely propelled by an increase in the women’s labour force participation rate (from 70.8% to 72.1%), combined with a decrease in the female unemployment rate (from 6.4% to 5.3%).

That said, it’s important to point out that the average gender pay gap across the OECD widened slightly from 13.2% to 13.5% over the same period. In fact, it has shown only a gradual improvement since 2011, narrowing by just 3.3 percentage points through to 2022.

To put this pace of improvement into context, our analysis shows that – at the current rate of progress – it will take more than 50 years to close the average OECD gender pay gap entirely. This underscores the persistent disparity between men and women in terms of labour market returns, despite women’s increased participation in the labour force.

Focus on the high performers

The countries that excel on our Index typically exhibit remarkably low gender pay gaps. Take top-ranking Luxembourg, for instance, which has the lowest gender pay gap across the OECD. Indeed, at -0.2%, the gap isn’t just low, it’s negative – meaning that, on average, women earn more than men at the median level of pay.

Or look at Iceland and Slovenia, which rank in second and third place respectively with minimal gender pay gaps. Their success in narrowing the gender pay gap can be attributed largely to their commitment to providing affordable, high-quality childcare and implementing favourable parental leave policies .

All three countries have implemented initiatives that contribute to reducing their gender pay gap. While Luxembourg benefits from a highly developed and specialised services sector, Iceland mandates gender budgeting for companies whereby gender equality considerations and impact assessments are applied to company budgeting processes, and Slovenia encourages flexible working arrangements to better suit the needs of parents like promotion of shorter working hours, part-time work, work from home, and adjustment of working hours to align with early childhood education (Kindergarten) hours.

We noted a similar trend in Australia. Since last year, it has risen seven places on the Index, showing improvements across all five indicators between 2021 and 2022. Particularly significant (and major contributors to the country’s improved ranking): a 4.3% decrease in the gender pay gap and 1.4% drop in the female unemployment rate. Advances in pay transparency legislation and an increase in proportion of women in management and upper pay quartiles have been recognised as important factors in this context.

Special challenges in the UK

In contrast, the UK, which experienced the largest annual fall on the Index, saw a marginal increase in its gender pay gap (increasing to 14.5% in 2022). It’s a persistent challenge for the UK that is likely driven by the country’s high cost of childcare relative to other OECD countries . This exacerbates the ‘motherhood penalty’ faced by women, which limits their ability to participate fully in the labour market.

Given this enduring gender pay gap, this year we’ve undertaken a detailed examination of drivers specific to the UK context. Our analysis delves into whether gender disparities persist even when factors such as ethnicity, age, and qualification levels, which influence pay, are taken into account.

Our results underscore the divergent levels of progress being made towards gender equality across the OECD. While strides have been made in the right direction, it's evident that not all women have reaped equal benefits in terms of labour market outcomes.

Creating a more equitable workplace

Without interventions, the risk of widening existing gender inequalities in the labour market remains significant. How, then, can we prevent the worsening of these inequalities and continue progressing towards closing the global gender pay gap?

Policymakers and businesses wield significant influence in driving change. And their understanding of the myriad factors and complexities that underpin gender disparities in pay is a critical first step towards addressing them and helping to create a more equitable workplace.

In the UK, for example, we’ve found that pay disparities differ and are often magnified when we look at the intersection of gender with factors like age, ethnicity, marital status and qualification levels. Measures that should contribute to tangible progress include collecting and reporting pay gap data to encourage transparency, enhancing parental leave policies, and cultivating a more inclusive work environment.

Not just a moral imperative – but a catalyst for growth

Over the past few years, countries across the OECD have had to grapple with periods of economic slowdown. And due to their disproportionate representation in insecure employment and low-paying sectors, women have often been most heavily impacted.

By exacerbating existing inequalities, downturns pose a monumental challenge to achieving gender equality at work. So why should we highlight these challenges and intervene? Because without prompt intervention, we risk an even more unequal future.

During times of economic upheaval, empowering women in the labour market can yield substantial benefits, including significant increases in earnings and GDP. In other words, fostering equal and inclusive workplaces isn’t just a moral imperative – it’s also a catalyst for economic growth and prosperity.

Visit our data explorer tool to explore the OECD-wide and country-specific findings of the Index. You can also explore a detailed examination of the drivers behind the gender pay gap specifically within the UK context.

*PwC’s Women in Work Index includes analysis of labour market results in 33 OECD countries. When we refer to the OECD in this article, we are referring to the OECD results for these 33 countries.

Last updated on 19 April 2024

1. World Economic Forum, May 2022, The motherhood penalty: How childcare and paternity leave can reduce the gender pay gap 2. Wellbeing Economy Alliance, Iceland - Policies to Promote Gender Equalit y 3. European Commission, Flexible working time arrangements and gender equality - A comparative review of 30 European Countries 4. Australian Government Workplace Gender Equality Agency, November 2023, Gender pay gap falls 1.1 percentage points to new low of 21.7%

Explore more women focused research

Read our #inclusionmatters research insights, authored by.

Yashi Chowdhary , is an economist specialising in labour market and policy research and is one of the authors of PwC’s Women in Work 2024 report. Yashi is a consultant at PwC UK.

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• Open access
• Published: 22 April 2024

Childhood migration experience and adult health: evidence from China’s rural migrants

• Xiaohong Li 1 ,
• Shiyan Qiao   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-9424-461X 1 &
• Dongying Zhang 1  

Archives of Public Health volume  82 , Article number:  53 ( 2024 ) Cite this article

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Place of residence plays an influential role in shaping individual development, and studies have established links between Childhood migration experience (CME) and health outcomes through maturity. Over the past three decades, China has undergone one of the largest rural-to-urban migrations, however, little is known about the effect of CME on rural migrants’ adult health in China.

Data from 7035 members of the 2016 and 2018 China Labor-force Dynamics Survey were analyzed. CME was measured by whether the place of residence and place of birth changed at the age of 14 years. Three measures of health (self-assessed health, BMI, and mental health scale) were obtained. Causal inferential analysis was performed, using the Probit model, the OLS model and the Propensity Score Matching (PSM) method, to explore the impact of CME on the adult health of rural migrants.

Overall, compared to individuals who did not migrate in childhood, the probability of reporting “very unhealthy”, “rather unhealthy”, and “fair” in the self-assessed health of the rural migrants with CME decreased by 0.23%, 1.55%, and 5.53%, the probability of reporting “healthy” and “very healthy” increased by 1.94% and 5.38%, the probability of BMI within the normal range was higher by 7.32%, and the mental health test scores were 0.2591 points higher significantly. Furthermore, in comparison with childhood non-migration, both cross-county and cross-city migration promoted the health status of rural migrants, but the positive effect of cross-province migration was not significant; from the gender perspective, CME could more dramatically improve rural women’s adult health than men, especially in mental health.

CME can significantly improve adult health, including physical and mental health, and the positive effect is more obvious among women, helping to reduce gender differences in health. For the migration distance, attention can be focused on the long-distance migrating individuals, who should get more support.

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Introduction

Moving to urban areas is a key way for rural residents to improve employment opportunities, incomes and living standards [ 1 ]. With the reform of China’s urban and rural household registration system, the cost of migration has been decreasing [ 2 ]. According to the latest data, China’s migrant population reached 375.8 million in 2020, a 69.73% increase compared to 2010 [ 3 ]. Family migration has become a new trend [ 4 ], and the number of migrant children has expanded to about 71.09 million in 2020 [ 5 ]. However, rural children may face major challenges in terms of nutritional health and need to adapt to changes in the local social environment. More empirical evidence, especially from developing countries, is still needed on the potential relationship between CME and the adult health of rural migrants.

Although diet and exercise directly influence physical health [ 6 , 7 ], the accessibility of economic, social, and cultural resources also impacts health [ 8 ]. Therefore, it is crucial to go beyond the individual level and understand how family context and social resources influence health [ 9 ]. Weaver et al. [ 10 ] and Collyer [ 11 ] verified that economic, social, and cultural capital cause changes in dietary habits and exercise frequency by influencing lifestyle and resource allocation, thus improving individual health. For rural children, migration not only represents a change in the physical location, but may also alter different combinations of economic, social, and cultural capital during their life cycles, which may have far-reaching and long-lasting effects on their future health. Children’s development during childhood is irreplaceable for their lifelong health, nutrition and well-being, and plays a vital role in family happiness and social mobility. As an important part of the future labor pool, rural migrant children’s healthy human capital in adulthood is also closely related to the country’s development, so it is necessary to explore the impact of CME on their adult health. Moreover, the study scope of migration effects can be expanded from short-term to long-term, thereby offering valuable insights into migration effects within the context of the life cycle.

Extensive research has linked childhood experiences to adult health, but few studies have directly focused on CME in developing countries. Shonkoff et al. [ 12 ] noted that childhood environmental changes can influence an individual’s health across the lifespan. Further, childhood adversities, such as undernutrition, low social status, and lack of parental presence, increase the risk of chronic disease in adulthood [ 13 , 14 ]. Empirical evidence from developed countries nearly demonstrates the negative impact of CME on adult health. Webb et al. [ 15 ], based on a national sample from Danish, found that migration experiences before the age of 15 could increase health risks in midlife, including suicidal behaviors, psychiatric disorders, and natural death. Using cohort data from the United States, Dong et al. [ 16 ] and Alvarado [ 17 ] also stated that CME was strongly associated with depression, smoking, alcohol abuse, and obesity in adulthood. Additionally, Simsek et al. [ 18 ] concluded that CME is more likely to have detrimental effects on health by conducting a meta-analysis of 90 studies published between 1989 and 2020.

Migration in developed countries is mostly due to bankruptcy, unemployment, etc., and such involuntary migration can be a stress source for children [ 19 ], ultimately negatively impacting health. However, China’s rural migration is unique because the Chinese pattern is mainly rural-urban migration, which is the “moving to opportunity”. The “dual structure model” [ 20 ], the “push-pull theory” [ 21 ] and the “rural-urban labor migration model” [ 22 ] all provided the theoretical basis for explaining “moving to opportunity” in developing countries. In China, migrant workers earn more than non-migrants, with an income gap as high as 29.27% in 2021 (Migrant Worker Monitoring Survey Report, 2012–2022). Duan et al. [ 23 ] also found that compared with non-migrated rural residents, the welfare of rural residents who migrated to cities in 2000–2010 and 2010–2017 improved by 37.93% and 29.75%. Thus, the migration of rural migrants in China is usually a rational choice to maximize utility. With reference to existing studies [ 24 , 25 ], and combining the existing information in the data, this paper defines the people whose place of birth and residence changed at age 14 as the samples with CME. So, as the largest developing country, what is the impact of the CME of China’s rural migrants on adult health? Does this effect change with migration distance? Additionally, in the context of rural-urban migration, where a marked preference for sons over daughters in rural areas is being challenged, does CME result in gender differences in health outcomes?

To respond to the above questions, data from the 2016 and 2018 China Labor-force Dynamics Survey were used to explore the impact of CME on adult health. Compared with the existing studies, the marginal contributions of this paper are as follows. Firstly, using the life course as an entry point, the study focuses on childhood migration experiences, an important factor that has been neglected in most of the studies on the health of migrant populations, and extends the studies on migrant children from static analysis to dynamic analysis, especially providing empirical evidence from China that “moving to opportunity” affects adult health. Secondly, analyzing gender differences in health dimensions from an individual microscopic perspective, as well as migration distance heterogeneity, and the relevant findings may bring insights for promoting migrant health. Moreover, the PSM method, the construction of Ratio index and the exclusion of relevant variables are used to mitigate endogeneity, which make the estimates more reliable.

The rest of this paper is structured as follows. The second part shows the research hypothesis based on the theoretical analysis. The third part describes data sources, selected variables and model construction, followed by empirical analysis in the fourth part. Finally, the paper ends with some concluding remarks and discussions.

Theoretical analysis and research hypotheses

Direct effects of cme on adult health of rural migrants.

For exploring the relationship between individuals’ childhood experiences and adult health, the “life course theory” usually has strong interpretive power. The theory views the life course as a sequence of multiple life events on a temporal axis, emphasizing that the same set of life events, when ordered differently in time, can have different effects on individuals [ 26 ]. Currently, studies have been conducted to validate this theory further. One explanation is the “sensitive period model”, which suggests that experiences during sensitive periods (embryonic, childhood, etc.) have lasting and potentially irreversible biological effects, ultimately influencing health across the lifespan [ 27 , 28 ]. Another explanation is the “adolescent pathway model”, meaning that childhood experiences expose people to different social conditions, which puts pressure on health [ 29 ] and have far-reaching cumulative effects over time [ 30 ].

Although the above studies provide theoretical references, there is no direct evidence of a possible relationship between CME and adult health in China. CME implies a geographic change from rural to urban, and affects individuals’ development by changing the resources and opportunities available. Notably, migration motivation has different impacts on the availability of economic, social and cultural resources [ 18 ], so it is crucial to analyze the migration motivation in the Chinese social context.

According to the new economics of labor migration [ 31 ], individuals not only consider individual utility maximization when making migration decisions but highly value family benefits. In China, most rural migration is intended for better economic, social and cultural resources [ 4 ], that is, moving to opportunity. Rural children’s migration is the result of rational choices made by the paternal generation [ 32 ]. In the long run, the short-term disadvantages of migration are offset by improved family income, social capital, and cultural attitudes [ 33 ]. Therefore, rural migrant children can have more opportunities and resources, which has a cumulative effect on adulthood and may positively impact their health. Specific analyses are presented below:

From the family level, the family structure of migrant children is relatively complete [ 32 ], the importance of which has been verified for children’s healthy growth. On the one hand, due to their parents’ higher income and improved dietary structure, migrant children have a solid health foundation [ 34 , 35 ]. On the other hand, parental care and companionship can guide children to form healthy behavioral habits and provide sufficient emotional support, which improves children’s physical and mental health [ 36 , 37 ], and the positive effects are transmitted to adulthood, thus enhancing the adult health of rural migrant children.

From the perspective of migrant children, CME may deteriorate mental health in the short term by disrupting their previous social capital and learning continuity. However, it should not be ignored that children are inherently resistant to adversity. After migrating to cities, rural children’s social networks outside of the countryside begin to expand [ 38 ], and high-quality urban social capital contributes to increasing their resilience [ 39 ], in the long run, which can counterbalance the negative impact of CME. Then, family usually plays a more critical role than school in determining academic achievement [ 40 ]. For example, parents provide guarantees in life care, learning counselling, and role modelling to enhance rural migrant children’s self-efficacy and reduce mental health risks [ 41 , 42 ]. In addition, better urban surroundings provide a “modeling effect” for rural migrant children, and growing up in a community where peers and adults value health leaves a deep imprint on them, thus motivating them to maintain a healthy weight [ 17 ]. Hence, hypothesis 1 is put forward.

CME is conducive to improving the adult health of rural migrants.

Heterogeneous effects of CME on adult health of rural migrants

Distance plays a pivotal role when individuals find a utility-maximizing location by weighing the costs and benefits of migration [ 4 ]. Generally, the farther the migration distance, the greater the economic benefits of migration, but as the distance increases, the greater macroscopic changes in politics, economy and society and microscopic changes in lifestyles and values. At this time, migrated individuals face unfamiliar social networks and social environments, leading to difficulties in adaptation, which may cause some stress on health in the short term [ 25 , 43 ], then further transmitted to the health performance of adulthood. Therefore, hypothesis 2 is put forward.

Compared to short-distance migration, long-distance migration during childhood does not contribute significantly to the adult health of rural migrants.

After migration, parents’ parenting attitudes change, creating differences in the investment in their sons’ and daughters’ health capital. In China’s rural areas, the long-standing concept of “raising children to support the elderly” leads to a preference for boys over girls [ 44 , 45 ]. In general, women suffer disadvantages in most health indicators [ 46 ]. Fortunately, with rapid urban industrialization, CME may weaken gender differences in health dimensions. On the one hand, after migrating from rural to urban areas, the fostering concepts of migrating parents gradually converge with those of urban residents [ 47 ]. This is conducive to strengthening migrating parents’ cognitive practice of “gender equality”, thus reducing gender differences in the health investment. On the other hand, girls outperform boys in language proficiency and memory tests [ 48 ], whose linguistic and cultural capital advantages enable them to adapt to new environments more quickly, so female migrants may have better health performance in adulthood [ 49 , 50 ]. Based on this, hypothesis 3 is proposed.

CME can significantly improve adult health in women more than in men.

The theoretical framework diagram is shown in Fig.  1 .

The theoretical framework

Materials and methods

Source of data.

The study used data from the China Labor-force Dynamics Survey (CLDS) implemented by the Center for Social Science Survey of Sun Yat-sen University in 2016 and 2018. The survey covers 29 provincial-level administrative regions in China (except Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan, Tibet, and Hainan), including information on migration, education, health and occupation of the labor force aged 15–64. In terms of the sampling methodology, CLDS adopts a multi-stage, multi-stratified, proportional to the number of laborers sampling method, and then utilizes the tracking survey method of rotating samples, ensuring the representativeness of the survey. Considering that this paper studies the rural migrants, only respondents who were in rural households from birth to age 14, born after 1970 (Those born after 1970 reached school age after the reform and opening up of China in 1978, and large-scale population movements began in China’s rural areas), and not in school were selected. In this paper, samples with missing variables were eliminated, and after cleaning the database, 7035 samples of data were finally obtained. Among them, the sample with CME is 569, and the sample without CME is 6466.

Moreover, it should be noted that despite the large number of rural migrants in China, the data limitations, as well as the limitations of this paper in terms of age at birth, household registration, migration status at age 14, and educational status, result in a small sample with CME. However, this does not affect the representativeness of the samples, which is similar to existing studies [ 4 , 25 , 47 ], and also meets the data needs for empirical analysis.

Variables selection

Explained variable.

Self-assessed health is a comprehensive assessment that reflects the states of the human body and mind, with good reliability, which has been widely used [ 51 , 52 ]. It reflects the perception of objective physical health status. Illness, limited life ability, physical disability, etc., will lead to more negative self-evaluation of health [ 53 ]. On the other hand, as an integrated cognition, self-assessed health also permeates the influence of psychological status. People with positive attitudes are more likely to remain optimistic about their own health, thus making a higher level of health self-assessment [ 54 ]. Self-ratings of health may be modified by age or culture, but still be an effective measure of health status [ 55 ]. Therefore, this paper used the self-assessed health indicator as a proxy variable for overall health status. In conjunction with the CLDS questionnaire, the question “What do you think of your current health status?” was assigned the following values: very healthy = 5, healthy = 4, fair = 3, rather unhealthy = 2, and very unhealthy = 1.

However, although self-assessed health contains physical and mental health information, it is a little subjective and may introduce some deviation [ 56 , 57 ]. In this regard, with reference to existing studies [ 46 , 58 , 59 ], this paper introduces the Body Mass Index (BMI) and the Mental Health Test to reflect physical and mental health, enhancing the reliability of the empirical test further. The details are as follows: for BMI, this paper sets a binary variable based on WHO’s standard, and when BMI is too high ( \( \ge 25\) ) or too low ( \( <18.5\) ), physical health is assigned a value of 0; BMI is within the normal range ( \( 18.5 \le BMI <25\) ), and the value is taken as 1. For mental health, the frequency of negative emotions in the last week was indicated, which included six aspects: feeling depressed, having a hard time doing anything, having a hard time sleeping, feeling lonely, crying, and giving up life. For example, the times of “feeling depressed” appeared in the past week ranged from 5 to 7 days, 3–4 days, 1–2 days, to less than 1 day, with a value of 0–3, and the scores of the above six questions were summed up. The scores for the above six questions were totaled, with higher scores indicating better mental health.

Explanatory variable

The period of childhood is defined as the time span from birth to 14 years old, and this classification is supported by the following reasons. The United Nations General Assembly defines “youth” as a group of people between the ages of 15 and 24 years old, so the period of 14–15 years old is usually an essential milestone in childhood. However, the CLDS only asked about changes of residence at age 14, and existing research mostly used the time node of 14 years old [ 15 , 24 , 25 ]. Hence, this paper determines whether an individual migrated or not through the retrospective question “Is the place of residence at the age of 14 the same as the place of birth” (accurate to the county), including not only movement at the age of 14 years, but movement before the age of 14 years which continues until the age of 14 years. If the answer is “no”, it means that the individual migrated in childhood, which takes the value of 1; otherwise, the value is 0. For migration distance, this paper compares the birthplace and residence of rural migrants at the age of 14, and categorizes the migration distance into childhood non-migration, cross-county migration (in the same city), cross-city migration (in the same province), and cross-province migration (in the same country).

Control variables

Following a wide range of literature [ 4 , 47 , 51 , 52 ], the following control variables were selected: (1) individual characteristics, including gender, age, age-squared, marital status, education, health insurance, and lifestyle (smoking, drinking and exercise); (2) family characteristics, including parents’ education, parents’ marital status at age 14, and the number of siblings; (3) regional characteristics, with regional variables constructed at the provincial level based on place of birth. In particular, it is necessary to point out that the family characteristics variables and the regional variables do not vary with time trends, which can effectively mitigate the endogeneity of the study.

Descriptive statistics of the variables are shown in Table  1 . To observe more visually the relationship between CME and health, a preliminary analysis of differences between groups was done, and the results are shown in Table  2 . Consistent with the previous theoretical analysis, individuals with the CME were in better health; individuals with long-distance migration were in worse health than individuals with short-distance migration. Besides, males were significantly better than females in the self-assessed health and mental health dimensions, confirming existing research [ 46 ], and it remains to be seen whether the CME can improve gender differences in health. However, in terms of physical health measured by the BMI, women were better than men, which is closely related to China’s national conditions, where the allocation of family resources favors men over women, so men are prone to over-nutrition, resulting in excessive obesity. The above analyses have not considered the effects of control variables, so this paper conducts further empirical analyses.

Datum model setting

In this paper, self-assessed health is used to reflect overall health, and the credibility of the outcome variable is enhanced by the BMI and mental health test, portraying the health status from the above 3 aspects. Since self-assessed health is an ordered categorical variable, the Ordered Probit model is used, and the model is set as follows:

Here, \( {migration}_{i}\) is an explanatory variable indicating whether the \( {i}_{th}\) sample migrated in childhood; \( {X}_{i} \) denotes a series of control variables (including individual, family, and regional characteristics), \( {\epsilon }_{i}\) means the random error term, \( {\alpha }_{0}\) is the intercept term, and \( {\alpha }_{1}\) and \( {\alpha }_{2}\) are the parameters to be estimated. Besides, \( {health}_{i}^{*}\) is the potential self-assessed health status, which is related to the observable ordered series \( {health}_{i}\) as follows:

Here, \( {r}_{0}\) 、 \( {r}_{1}\) 、 \( {r}_{2}\) 、 \( {r}_{3}\) are cut points, indicating the parameters to be estimated. When \( {health}_{i}^{*}\le {r}_{0}\) , respondents rated themselves as very unhealthy; when \( {{r}_{0}<health}_{i}^{*}\le {r}_{1}\) , respondents rated themselves as rather unhealthy; and similarly for the remaining three cases.

Secondly, BMI is a binary discrete variable, so the Probit model is used, which is set as below:

Here, \( {\mu }_{i}\) represents the random error term, \( {\beta }_{0}\) is the intercept term, and \( {\beta }_{1}\) and \( {\beta }_{2} \) are the parameters to be estimated. Finally, the individual’s mental health status is a continuous variable, so the OLS model is set as follows:

Where \( {mental}_{i}\) means the individual’s mental health status, \( {\phi }_{i}\) refers to the random error term, \( {\vartheta }_{0}\) is the intercept term, and \( {\vartheta }_{1}\) and \( {\vartheta }_{2}\) are the parameters to be estimated.

Results and analysis

Baseline regression analysis.

Table  3 presents the results of CME on the adult health of rural migrants. Column (1) of Table  3 showed that CME had a significant positive effect on overall health (self-assessed health). From column (2) of Table  3 , the impact coefficient of CME on physical health was 0.1959, which still showed a significant positive effect. As shown in column 3 of Table  3 , the mental health test scores of rural individuals with CME were 0.2591 points higher than those who did not migrate in childhood, significantly at the 5% level. In summary, CME does improve the adult health status of rural migrants, confirming hypothesis 1 of the theoretical analysis, and providing direct empirical evidence that “moving to opportunity” can positively contribute to individual health. Moreover, the control variables are not the core of exploration, so we do not extend the control variable results.

Additionally, in columns (1) and (2) of Table  3 , the estimated coefficients from the Probit model reflect only the direction and significance of the effect. For ease of interpretation, it is necessary to estimate the marginal effect of CME on overall health and physical health. As illustrated in column (1) of Table  4 , compared with individuals who did not migrate in childhood, the probability of reporting “very unhealthy”, “rather unhealthy”, and “fair” in the self-assessed health of the rural migrants with CME decreased by 0.23%, 1.55%, and 5.53%, and the probability of reporting “healthy” and “very healthy” increased by 1.94% and 5.38%, and all of them were significant at the 1% level. Column (2) of Table  4 also indicated that the probability of BMI within the normal range was significantly higher by 7.32%. The above results for marginal effects are consistent with the baseline regression analysis in Table  3 , again validating hypothesis 1.

Robustness test

Estimations based on the propensity score matching method.

Due to the “healthy migration effect” [ 60 ], a mixed regression of childhood migrants and childhood non-migrants may not satisfy random sampling. To minimize sample self-selection bias, this paper constructs a “counterfactual frame” through the PSM method to isolate the net effect of CME. Concretely, the study sample was divided into a childhood migration treatment group and a non-migration control group, and given the covariates, a “propensity score” was used to represent the conditional probability that an individual would enter the “treatment group”, and then individuals with similar characteristics but different CME were matched, whereby the difference in the health of the two groups could be considered as the net effect of CME.

In this paper, three methods of near-neighbor matching (1:4), caliper matching ( R  = 0.01), and kernel matching were used. Before measuring the ATT values, we conducted covariate balance tests and common support hypothesis tests, which were in line with expectations (due to space limitations, the results are not reported in the paper). As shown in Table  5 , it is evident that the ATT values calculated by the three matching methods were all negative, with a slight difference in significance level, which is consistent with the results of the baseline regression analysis.

Excluding the effects of omitted variable bias

PSM mainly alleviates the sample self-selection problem, and to minimize the estimation bias caused by omitted variables, this paper refers to related studies [ 43 , 61 ], and adopts observable variables to discriminate the bias caused by unobservable variables. Specifically, the regression using two differentiated control sets constructs the following indices:

Here, \( {\widehat{\beta }}_{2}\) represents the estimated coefficient of the explanatory variable under all possible control sets, and \( {\widehat{\beta }}_{1}\) reflects the coefficient under a limited set of control variables. If the value of Ratio is larger, it means that the selected observable variables are more explanatory and the possibility of omitting unobserved variables is smaller. When \( Ratio>1\) , it can be assumed that omitting variables does not have greater explanatory power for the estimation results compared to the selected observable variables, indicating the effect of omission bias interference is negligible. Given the complexity of the coefficients in the Probit model, in this part of the paper, the explained variables are all regarded as continuous variables, and the coefficients are estimated by using the OLS model [ 43 ].

We checked for omitted variable bias in the baseline regression. First, we constructed three sets: set 1 includes only the explanatory variable (CME); set 2 includes the explanatory variable and individual variables; set 3 includes all control variables, and the results are shown in Table  6 . Regardless of how the explained variables were replaced, the Ratio values computed from sets 1 and 3, and sets 2 and 3 were much larger than 1. This means that if the omitted variables interfere with the estimation results, their explanatory power is at least 5.1821 times that of the selected variables. The baseline regressions have controlled for individual, family and regional variables as much as possible, so it is credible that omitted variables are less likely to interfere with the regression results.

Exclusion of relevant variables

CME impacts significantly adult health, however, migration after age 14 may also affect health [ 17 , 25 ]. In the baseline regression, this paper distinguished the treatment and control groups by “whether the individual migrated at age 14”, but some of the samples also migrated after age 14, which may interfere with the research results. In response, this paper removed the samples with migration experience after age 14 for robustness testing, and the results were exhibited in Table  7 . It is easy to see that CME helps to improve the health of rural migrants and passes the significance test, validating the robustness of the baseline regression.

Heterogeneity analysis

The previous analysis focuses on hypothesis 1, which reflects the average effect of CME on the adult health of rural migrants. Theoretical analysis also shows migration distance differences and gender differences in this effect. Therefore, this paper further examines the heterogeneity of the impact of CME on adult health based on gender and migration distance, and the results are shown in Tables  8 and 9 .

Given that long-distance migrants are likely to come from poorer places and have lower health capital before migration, we included the birthplace variable to mitigate this bias as much as possible, and the regression results are shown in Table  8 . Compared with childhood non-migration, cross-county migration and cross-city migration could significantly improve adult overall health, but the positive effect of cross-province migration did not pass the significance test; in terms of physical health, only cross-county migration significantly promoted physical health; in terms of mental health, only cross-city migration had a significant positive effect. The results verify hypothesis 2, that is, the positive effect of long-distance migration on adult health is not significant compared to short-distance migration. Therefore, the family migration should consider the economic benefits and the integration costs to make the optimal decision, thus promoting the maximum welfare of the offspring.

Table  9 reported gender differences in the impact of CME on adult health. CME improved women’s overall health more than men’s and passed a seemingly unrelated estimation test (SUEST) at the 10% level, supporting hypothesis 3. Combined with Table  2 , we could know that men were dominant in both self-assessed health and mental health, and fortunately, childhood migration was more favorable to women’s health. Further, this difference in overall health was not physical but mental health, meaning CME promoted women’s mental health more than men’s. The reasons are as follows: as a result of the enhanced cognitive practice of “equality between men and women” by parents who migrate to urban areas, rural girls can obtain more resource inputs after migration, and the advantage of language also enables them to adapt to the new environment more quickly, resulting in a more remarkable improvement in their physical and mental health; however, after migration, the increment of boys’ resource is too common to create a strong mental contrast with the pre-migration period, and only improves physical health. Thus, CME reduces gender differences in adult health, especially mental health.

Conclusions and discussions

Existing studies have demonstrated that childhood experiences are associated with individual well-being across the lifespan, and this paper provides an essential explanation from the micro perspective of individuals. Based on data from the CLDS in 2016 and 2018, this paper explores the impact of CME on the adult health of rural migrants. The study found that CME can significantly improve rural migrants’ adult health, including physical health and mental health. Previous studies on China also confirm that rural migrant children have better physical and mental health compared to non-migrated rural children [ 42 ], and CME is positively associated with objective well-being [ 62 ]. Other studies in developed countries have shown that CME is more likely to negatively affect health [ 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 ]. Overall, the reasons underlying the health of childhood migrants may be complex, but the motivation to migrate is key, and the CME of rural migrants is a kind of “moving to opportunity”. Compared with urban local children, migrant children can get more family companionship, whose parents care about their life and study to the maximum extent, as laterally verified by many studies [ 4 , 24 , 62 ].

Migration distance and gender are also important factors affecting health. From the perspective of migration distance, in comparison with childhood non-migration, both cross-county and cross-city migration promoted the health status of rural migrants, but the positive effect of cross-province migration was not significant. Migration distance is an important economic factor as well as a geographic variable, and long-distance migration is more likely to damage the health of migrants [ 4 , 63 ]. From the gender perspective, CME could more dramatically improve rural women’s adult health than men, especially in mental health. Some studies have shown that women are worse than men on most health indicators [ 46 , 64 ]. Fortunately, the childhood migration of China’s rural population is more favorable to women, promoting health equality at the gender level.

Based on the above discussion, we draw the following insights: On the one hand, the CME of the rural migrants helps to improve adult health, and also reduces gender gaps in health, a positive effect that combines efficiency and equity, suggesting that it is crucial to promote the orderly migration of the rural residents to the city. With the “Citizenship of the Agricultural Transfer Population” policy, there will still be more rural migrants who migrate during their childhood. In this regard, the government should promote health strategies from a life-cycle perspective, intervene early in life, and strengthen the basic public service tied to the “permanent residents” to boost the family migration of rural children. On the other hand, attention can be focused on the long-distance migrating individuals, who should get more support through government intervention, community services and the intervention of social organizations, making the rural migrants better integrated into the cities. Besides, we should discard a stereotypical negative image of migrant children and their families. As Dong and Wang [ 65 ] pointed out in the book review, if we penetrate deeply into the life scenarios of migrant children, we would find that they are not as vulnerable as we think, experiencing more changes and forming a stronger ability to adapt to new environments.

The impact of migration is a popular theme in the field of development economics, and the findings of this paper provide a valid extension. First, unlike examining the impact of parental migration on children [ 66 , 67 ], parental migration leads to the problem of left-behind children, so the “income effect” and the “care effect” are usually not balanced, resulting in rural children being potentially disadvantaged. Second, in contrast to the study of Lu et al. [ 47 ], which concluded that CME has a negative impact, but this paper uses the phrase “whether the place of residence at age 14 is the same as the place of birth” to imply the continuity of the migration time, and as far as possible excludes the situation of migration to the city and then back to the countryside again, avoiding estimation bias brought by returning to the countryside. Finally, we focus on the impact of CME on reducing gender differences in health, providing new insights into how gender shapes opportunities and access to resources across the life cycle.

Despite the extended work done in this paper, there still needs to be improved. First, because of data limitations, we cannot analyze the impact of age and times of childhood migrations; Second, the data used in this paper is retrospective, so respondents may have fuzzy memories which cause inaccurate information; third, CME is influenced by many factors, and the reasons for migration may be more important than the migration itself, so follow-up data that explore this would make the study more meaningful.

Data availability

No datasets were generated or analysed during the current study.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are thankful for the Key Project of the National Social Science Foundation of China (20AJL011). The authors also express their appreciation for the anonymous referees and editors for their constructive comments and suggestions.

This study was funded by the Key Project of the National Social Science Foundation of China: “Research on Stable Poverty Alleviation Mechanism of Consumption Poverty Reduction Leading to Trans-action Expansion” (20AJL011).

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Li, X., Qiao, S. & Zhang, D. Childhood migration experience and adult health: evidence from China’s rural migrants. Arch Public Health 82 , 53 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1186/s13690-024-01280-x

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• Childhood migration
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• Gender difference

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