Problems and Development Paths of Gender Education for Primary
and Secondary School Students
Yining Shen
Foreign Language College, Zhejiang Wanli University, Ningbo, Zhejiang, China
Keywords: Education, Gender Education, Primary and Secondary Schools.
Abstract: The issue of gender education in primary and secondary schools in China has received extensive attention in
recent years. However, there are still deficiencies in the popularization of gender education in primary and
secondary schools, as well as in addressing these problems. This article mainly analyzes the gender cognitive
bias, as well as the common gender education problems in primary and secondary schools, and their causes.
This article, through analysis, demonstrates that scientific gender education can help students establish
accurate gender concepts, learn to respect their own and others' differences, and cultivate values of equality
and inclusiveness. Based on the research conclusions, this paper puts forward the following suggestions: First
of all, the education department should improve the gender education system, incorporate it into the regular
curriculum, and construct a systematic gender knowledge framework. Second, strengthen the construction of
the teaching staff, enhance the gender theory literacy and teaching ability of teachers, so that they can correctly
guide students. Finally, create a favorable social environment to foster a more inclusive atmosphere for the
growth of teenagers.
1 INTRODUCTION
In recent years, with the gradual opening up of
concepts, concepts such as gender equality, multiple
genders, and mobility orientation have been widely
spread through online media. Gender education for
primary and secondary school students has
increasingly become an urgent matter. However,
gender education in primary and secondary schools in
China is still in the development stage. Problems such
as gender cognitive bias and traditional gender
stereotypes are widespread, which are profoundly
affecting students' mental health and the process of
socialization. Existing research shows that the
implementation of gender education in China
presents obvious differences among educational
stages: Gender education is relatively widespread in
higher education, while it lags and is lacking in basic
education (Luo, 2021). Research by Professor Liu
Wenli and other experts has confirmed that
conducting sex education at an appropriate age,
including an objective introduction to sexual
minorities, helps children establish correct self-
awareness and respect for others. At present, there are
many problems in the practice of gender education in
primary and secondary schools in China, mainly
including the ambiguity of gender education
concepts, the absence of institutional norms, the
singularity of educational content and the limitation
of educational coverage objects (Luo, 2021). It is
worth noting that the shackles of traditional cultural
concepts have led to a widespread mentality among
teachers and parents that they are reluctant to discuss
this topic, which constitutes an important
psychosocial obstacle to promoting gender education.
This study is based on the current situation of
gender education in primary and secondary schools in
China, and systematically analyzes the development
trend and influence of gender cognitive bias in
primary and secondary schools in China. Reveal the
main problems and causes of this current situation;
Put forward constructive suggestions to optimize the
gender education and teaching system in primary and
secondary schools, provide a new perspective for the
optimization and upgrading of gender education, and
promote the healthy, peaceful and equal development
of gender in society.
600
Shen, Y.
Problems and Development Paths of Gender Education for Pr imary and Secondary School Students.
DOI: 10.5220/0014393800004859
Paper published under CC license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)
In Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Politics, Law, and Social Science (ICPLSS 2025), pages 600-605
ISBN: 978-989-758-785-6
Proceedings Copyright © 2026 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda.

2 TRENDS AND IMPACTS OF
GENDER COGNITION ISSUES
2.1 Current Situation of Gender
Cognition
Gender cognition, also known as gender self-identity,
is a term coined by psychiatrist Professor Robert J.
Stoller.
Created in 1964, it refers to a person's subjective
feelings about their gender. The current society
divides gender into male and female, forming the
mainstream gender binary system, and the majority of
people follow this mainstream system. In recent
years, with the rise of social media, the topic of
gender cognition has also gained increasing
popularity. More and more non-traditional gender
topics and groups have made public appearances on
social media to share their daily lives and popularize
relevant knowledge about such groups to the public.
The public also maintains a respectful attitude.
2.2 Causes of Gender Cognitive Bias
Gender cognitive bias usually refers to the difference
between an individual's gender identity and biological
gender or the conflict with traditional gender norms
in terms of behavior and appearance. The secular
world usually regards gender cognitive bias as a
psychological problem - gender cognitive disorder
(misalignment).
First of all, one of the reasons for the bias in
children's gender cognition is biological factors.
General research holds that core gender identity is
firmly formed by the age of 3. Even more scholars
believe that children will have sexual enlightenment
between 18 months and 2 years old (Solomon, 2013).
The formation of gender identity is influenced by
stable biological factors and is also affected by
cultural and social construction, while the formation
of gender cognition is influenced by many factors,
and deviations are formed among them (Bukatko &
Daexchler, 2001).
Secondly, family factors are one of the important
factors contributing to the formation of deviations. In
the early years of childhood, many activities of
children mainly rely on imitating the people, things,
and events around them. However, many parents do
not take it seriously, believing that the formation of
gender cognition is a natural thing and will be
completed naturally at a certain age. Therefore, if
children are neglected and lack the correct guidance
of their parents, they can be confused about gender
roles. Parental misguidance, such as parents dressing
up young boys as girls, can also lead to gender
confusion. Therefore, the educational and guiding
role of parents has a huge impact on the formation of
children's gender cognition. As the first teachers in
their children's lives, parents should impart the
correct gender concepts to their children and lead
them onto the right track.
Finally, social factors are also one of the
important factors. Due to the particularly fierce social
competition in the 21st century, girls are no longer
required to be "gentle and reserved" but are judged as
"assertive", which is completely different from the
traditional expectations of gender roles. Instead, it is
easy to foster a trend of "strong women and weak
men", and for boys whose minds are not yet mature,
there is a high probability of causing a cognitive
imbalance that is different from the past. Moreover,
the development of the Internet has made it easier for
today's society to access the LGBTQ+ community.
Although modern society's acceptance of gender
diversity has increased, which is conducive to people
expressing and exploring gender identity, from the
perspective of children, it will, to a large extent, cause
gender confusion and lead to blind following.
2.3 The Influence of Gender Cognitive
Bias
The influence of gender cognitive bias on primary
and secondary school students is dual. On the positive
side, this kind of challenge also prompts some
students to explore themselves more firmly and
develop creativity, while promoting the new
generation to form a more inclusive gender concept
and cultivate social empathy. On the negative side,
students who do not meet traditional gender
expectations are prone to psychological stress, school
bullying, and opportunity limitations. For instance,
boys who like dancing may be ridiculed by their
classmates, which can lead to low self-esteem and
anxiety and affect their future development. Such
behaviors that do not conform to traditional
stereotypes are likely to be labeled as "unsociable",
and in more serious cases, they may be bullied. Some
unconscious "gender discrimination", such as
encouraging boys to participate in computer science
competitions and guiding girls to take part in more
cultural and artistic activities, gradually deprives
students of their rights and opportunities for diverse
individual development.
Problems and Development Paths of Gender Education for Primary and Secondary School Students
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3 THE ROLE AND PROBLEMS
OF GENDER EDUCATION IN
PRIMARY AND SECONDARY
SCHOOLS
3.1 The Role of Gender Education
Gender education plays an important role in the
personal development of primary and secondary
school students and social progress. In simple terms,
the core of gender education in primary and
secondary schools is to promote gender equality and
eliminate gender stereotypes. This view has also
drawn attention from an international perspective: On
the occasion of International Women's Day in 2022,
UNESCO published a fact list on gender equality,
emphasizing how to break gender biases and
stereotypes in education (UNESCO, 2019).
Gender education in primary and secondary
schools lays a solid foundation for students to build a
correct cognitive system, and enables them to have a
clear understanding and reflection on social
stereotypes, interpersonal relationship handling, and
the prevention of school violence.
3.1.1 Establishing the Awareness of Gender
Equality
The primary and secondary school stage is a crucial
period for the stability of gender awareness.
Systematic gender education helps cultivate a new
generation of citizens who are equal, free, and
inclusive in many aspects and promotes the steady
and sustainable development of society. It has been
pointed out in some literature that the outdated and
stereotyped gender concepts over a long period have,
to some extent, restricted people's personal
development. Some are even eroding the gender
value system in the form of distorted values, affecting
the comprehensive, healthy, and sustainable
development of individuals and society (Chen, 2018).
Therefore, implementing it in primary and secondary
schools can not only help students establish gender
equality awareness and break away from so-called
stereotypes, but also cultivate students' social
cognition of respecting diverse gender expressions.
Gender equality is not merely verbal equality, but also
equality at multiple levels, such as politics, economy,
society, temperament, and family. In today's society,
inequality often leans towards women, and the
fermentation of many events also stems from
dissatisfaction with the excessive preference for men.
All these may be more or less related to the lack of
gender education.
3.1.2 Building Friendly Interpersonal
Relationships and Preventing School
Violence
During the educational process, students can also
learn to establish equal and respectful interpersonal
relationships, laying a foundation for handling family
division of labor and close relationships in the future.
Because the stereotype of "soft women and tough
men" permeated in traditional culture has deeply
rooted in the hearts of the people, students are taught
from a young age to develop according to the gender
characteristics established by the secular world. As a
result, some traits that go against gender stereotypes
are not accepted by students, leading to the
continuous emergence of gender prejudice and school
bullying. Carrying out gender education can
effectively prevent gender discrimination and school
violence, reduce the phenomenon of gender prejudice
and sexual harassment among students, and respect
others on the premise of protecting oneself. More
importantly, gender education enables students to
better understand the rights of the LGBTQ+
community, cultivate an inclusive mindset, and
prepare for building a fairer and more diverse society.
It can be said that gender education in primary and
secondary schools is not only about imparting
knowledge but also a crucial link in shaping values. It
plays an irreplaceable role in cultivating new era
citizens with an awareness of equality and a confident
personality.
3.2 Problems in Gender Education and
Their Causes
3.2.1 Excessive Emphasis on Subject
Learning and the Absence of Gender
Education
In Chinese education, there exists the concept that
"grades come first". Chinese primary and secondary
schools mainly aim for academic success, so many
schools focus on subject learning (Li & Liu, 2022). In
other words, in the primary and secondary education
system in China, gender education has long been
marginalized. School educational resources are
mainly concentrated on the imparting of subject
knowledge, while gender education is often simply
classified as an appendage of "physiology and
hygiene courses" or even directly ignored. The reason
lies first in that schools pay more attention to hard
ICPLSS 2025 - International Conference on Politics, Law, and Social Science
602

indicators such as the college admission rate and
regard gender issues as "unimportant" content.
Secondly, traditional cultural concepts make many
teachers ashamed to mention relevant content.
Furthermore, the current curriculum system lacks a
systematic gender education syllabus, and teachers
generally lack relevant professional training. This
lack of education leads to the absence of correct
guidance for students in aspects such as gender
cognition. Not only is it difficult for them to form a
healthy concept of gender equality, but they may also
be influenced by online information and develop
cognitive biases.
3.2.2 Sexual "Verbal Confinement"
Influenced by traditional Chinese culture, sex has
been in an indescribable state at any time in history,
and this state has persisted until now. The form of
incorporating gender education-related content into
the teaching system has not yet been widely adopted
or formed. The main reasons for this are: First, due to
the deeply rooted traditional concepts, teachers regard
them as forbidden fruits and do not include them in
teaching tasks. Second, teachers' professional
qualities in this aspect need to be improved. It is
difficult for them to accurately combine knowledge
with teaching and impart it to students. There is a
concern that improper knowledge output may lead to
improper "sexual behaviors" among students (Li &
Gong, 2020). Moreover, the dissemination channels
of gender knowledge are diverse and not solely
dependent on classroom teaching. However, gender
education is fragmented and prone to distortion,
which has led to the slow formation of gender
education in primary and secondary schools.
3.2.3 Tagging Imitation in Social Media
With the integration and open development of global
cultures, social media nowadays serves as the main
carrier for the dissemination of non-binary gender
cultures. Short-video platforms have simplified non-
binary gender identities into a series of entertainment
tags, inducing students to distort gender identity into
a traffic code. This kind of entertainment-oriented
pastime leads students to form a one-sided
understanding of sexual minorities through
participation methods such as following the trend and
imitating, but lacks a scientific understanding of
gender. The deeper problem lies in the fact that the
phenomenon of following the trend driven by
commercial traffic and the conservative gender
education in schools forms a gap, which may cause
cognitive biases among teenagers due to the absence
of education. At the same time, some social media
content simplifies related issues into trendy labels or
extreme positions, lacking scientific guidance. This
may exacerbate gender confrontation or herd
behavior on campus, interfering with the
systematicness and age-appropriate nature of gender
education in schools.
4 SUGGESTIONS
4.1 Improving the Gender Education
Curriculum System
Given the current severe situation of gender education
in primary and secondary schools in China, it is
urgent to build a complete and appropriate gender
education system.
Students of different age groups have different
levels of understanding and acceptance of gender.
Designing course content in stages based on age as
the classification criterion is conducive to children
building a more solid gender knowledge system. The
age range of 7 to 13 (primary school stage) is the
enlightenment period. The teaching content at this
stage should center on gender equality and respect for
individual differences, and convey concepts such as
no gender boundaries in occupations through books
and games (Liang & Dong, 2023). At the same time,
basic physiological hygiene enlightenment education
is carried out to teach students about the physiological
differences between boys and girls and privacy
protection. From the age of 14 to 16 (junior high
school stage), it is the deepening period. At this time,
systematic physiological and sexual knowledge
should be incorporated, including but not limited to
the changes in adolescent development, gender
identity, and sex education content. At this stage,
children have a stronger ability to accept new things
and have a further understanding of gender education.
It is more appropriate to discuss issues such as gender
stereotypes, LGBTQ+, and gender-based violence,
which is conducive to the budding of students' social
gender thoughts and helps to the diversified
development of their personalities. By the age of 17-
19 (high school stage), students generally possess the
ability of critical thinking, and the sensitivity of
teenagers to elements such as society, emotions, and
relationships also increases significantly during this
period (Cherewick et al, 2021). At this time, it is
excellent to introduce the sections of gender and
socio-cultural analysis and strengthen the sections of
emotional education and relationship handling.
Problems and Development Paths of Gender Education for Primary and Secondary School Students
603

Furthermore, enriching the forms of courses is
also an important construction goal. The
diversification of course forms is a powerful tool to
stimulate students' enthusiasm for learning.
Therefore, setting up a large number of interactions in
the classroom, such as role-playing, debate
competitions, and case analyses, can help increase
students' participation in class and enable them to
better absorb and understand the course content.
Appropriate and interesting discussions can enable
students to have a deeper understanding of gender
more vividly. Integrating gender into the disciplinary
perspective is a curriculum learning approach that is
highly consistent with China's education system. For
instance, in the teaching process of Chinese
textbooks, students are guided to analyze literary
works from a gender perspective and appreciate
gender concepts of different eras, enabling them to
acquire the vision and ability to examine gender
culture (Li & Gong, 2020). Practical activities such as
professional experience and social research can
enable students to perceive gender equality,
inclusiveness, and respect in practice.
4.2 Strengthening the Construction of
the Teaching Staff
At the primary and secondary school education stage,
China has not yet solved the problem that the teacher
training system is not yet perfect. Including sex
education ability in the teacher training plan can lay a
solid foundation for teachers in schools to develop
gender education ability (Li & Liu, 2022).
First of all, regularly conducting gender education
teacher training can help teachers eliminate their own
gender biases from a theoretical and ideological
perspective, help them consolidate the theoretical
foundation of gender knowledge, and better impart
and teach students in the classroom. At the same time,
during the training, the teaching plan templates and
guidelines for dealing with controversial issues
should be improved. The school can join hands with
gender research experts from universities and public
welfare organizations to refine more professional
course content. Special gender education advisors
should be assigned to the school to answer questions
and provide guidance for teachers and students at any
time. Establish a dynamic tracking mechanism -
regularly use anonymous questionnaires to gather
feedback on the actual situation of students, observe
the changes in daily behaviors, and combine the data
of gender-related events on campus to provide real-
time feedback and modify the teaching mechanism.
At the same time, fresh cases are promptly integrated
into the teaching content to ensure that gender
education always remains "alive" in the present.
4.3 Creating a Favorable Social
Environment
To build a truly inclusive campus, the first step is to
establish rules - strictly prohibit gender
discrimination and violence in black and white, and
set up smooth channels for reporting. Furthermore, it
is necessary to break those invisible shackles, such as
the unwritten rules like "Boys must have short hair"
and "Girls are not allowed to play football", so that
students are no longer bound by the rules and
regulations but can find themselves. Involve parents
as well. Through parent open days and parent-child
classes, let them understand that gender equality is
not about "causing trouble", but about paving the way
for children's future (Zhou, 2023) .
5 CONCLUSION
Gender education in primary and secondary schools
in China, as an important part of the education
system, has significant implications and influences on
the physical and mental health development of
primary and secondary school students. The long-
term absence of gender education, the confinement of
"sexual" language, and the influence of information
on social media have led to the current situation of
gender education and the gender cognitive bias
among primary and secondary school students.
Nowadays, in this era of rapid development, the
improvement of the gender education system in
primary and secondary schools should start from the
curriculum and the living environment. The
diversified curriculum design, strong teaching staff,
and inclusive social environment play a promoting
role in cultivating and instilling correct, inclusive,
equal, and respectful gender knowledge in students.
To sum up, there are still many challenges in the
gender education system of primary and secondary
schools in China. Therefore, the improvement and
reform of gender education is imperative to build a
more comprehensive, scientific, and reasonable
gender education system and promote the all-around
and healthy development of gender education in
primary and secondary schools in China.
ICPLSS 2025 - International Conference on Politics, Law, and Social Science
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