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Article

Exploring the Challenges and Strategies of the Sustainable Development of Female Teachers in China’s World-Class Universities: Stakeholder Perspectives

by
Jian Li
1,
Eryong Xue
1,* and
Kun Li
2
1
China Institute of Education Policy, Faculty of Education, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China
2
Institute of Education History and Culture, Faculty of Education, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Sustainability 2023, 15(4), 3488; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15043488
Submission received: 1 December 2022 / Revised: 28 January 2023 / Accepted: 10 February 2023 / Published: 14 February 2023
(This article belongs to the Section Sustainable Education and Approaches)
Versions Notes

Abstract

:
The sustainable development of female university teachers in China faces a range of societal and workplace challenges, especially since the advent of China’s ‘Universal Three-Child Policy’. We applied ‘ecofeminism’ and ‘intersectionality’ perspectives to investigate the role of conflict and endogenous/exogenous environmental culture pressure on the sustainable development of female teachers in world-class Chinese universities. Semi-structured qualitative interviews took place with 28 female teachers in 6 Chinese universities and colleges. The findings indicated that individuals experience deep role conflicts and stereotypes of traditional society. The inherent thinking and behavior patterns brought about through the socialization of female teachers make it difficult for them to achieve self-identity in their professional development. Female teachers should strengthen their subjective consciousness rather than be consumed by multiple identities and role conflicts. Universities and colleges have a duty to protect women’s reproductive rights and prevent gender discrimination linked to these rights. Cultural identification should be promoted and embedded culturally-based gender bias must be avoided to promote gender equality and a change in customs.

1. Introduction

The sustainable development of female teachers plays a pivotal role in promoting the development of world-class universities. ‘World-class universities’ are identified as ‘first-class universities and disciplines of the world’, also known as ‘double first-class’, and were a major strategic decision made by the CPC Central Committee and The State Council. They are also another national strategy in China’s higher education sector following ‘Project 211’ and ‘Project 985’. They are conducive to enhancing the comprehensive strength and international competitiveness of China’s higher education. A total of 147 universities are under construction. There are 59 basic disciplines such as mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, 180 engineering disciplines, and 92 philosophy and social science disciplines [1]. The development of higher education in China has seen college and university enrollment expanding rapidly. The number of teachers in these institutions has also grown rapidly, including the proportion of women. In 2021, there were 98,789 full-time female teachers in Chinese universities, accounting for 51.22% of the total workforce (male and female teachers). The number of female teachers in Chinese colleges and universities has increased in the past 20 years, and the proportion of women has increased by nearly 13%, exceeding the number of male full-time teachers and essentially realizing gender equality [2]. However, in terms of title structure, women account for 61.12% of junior full-time teachers, 56.36% of intermediate full-time teachers, 47.93% of deputy senior full-time teachers, and 31.73% of full senior full-time teachers. Women are poorly represented in the groups with higher professional titles and typically face more challenges in their career development at these levels. In China, gender is often a euphemism for women in the field of sociology and we try to describe and analyze the life experience and career planning of female teachers in colleges and universities. The steady rise in the number and relative proportion of female teachers in universities not only symbolizes the improvement of women’s status but also suggests that we need to pay attention to this group. The increase in the number does not mean that the historical pattern of male-centered and marginalized-female teaching roles in higher education has ceased to exist, nor does it mean that the unique problems encountered by female teachers in the process of development have been solved by themselves. Especially in China, the role conflict experienced by female teachers in colleges and universities shows that, compared with male teachers, female teachers not only encounter gender discrimination in the public field but also face the burden of housework in the private field and the realistic bottleneck caused by the collision of different expectations in the public and private fields [3]. Previous studies also argued that, with the rapid increase in the number and proportion of female teachers in China’s universities, the important role of female teachers is increasingly apparent. Although they face multiple pressures such as traditional social gender concepts, family role conflicts, and fierce competition in the workplace, they still devote their time and energy to gaining a place in career development [4,5]. There are challenges or problems in the academic field associated with gender differences that arise due to the existing gender differences. Further, the conflict between the early stage of career development and the life stage of getting married shows a strong gender difference. Female university teachers need to break through the ‘glass ceiling’ by investing great energy in their work for career development. At the same time, they are also influenced by traditional gender concepts and division of labor, typically devoting much time to their families.
Many previous studies highlight that understanding role conflict plays an important role in the development of female teachers in higher education institutions. Take the career development of female teachers in China’s world-class universities, especially under the impact of the ‘Universal Two-Child Policy’ as an example. The role conflict of the professional development of female teachers and higher education institutions should pay much attention to offer friendly and sufficient support to their professional development. The career development of female teachers is closely related to self-actualization. It is believed that although young female teachers actively explore the value of their own existence and constantly transcend themselves, they often fall into the dilemma of self-realization. The dynamic process of self-actualization is far away from the real world and deviates from the essence of existence. In terms of the result of self-realization, forgetting the original mind, the secular reality self is strong, and the ideal self is banished. The reasons for these problems are both macroscopic and microscopic. The influence of multicultural values, especially the values of individualism, leads to difficulties in the self-actualization of young female teachers. The overflow of instrumental rationality and the decline of value rationality led to the dilemma of the self-realization methods of young female teachers. The conflict between the role played and the transformation of that role causes young female teachers to constantly face psychological difficulties in the process of self-realization. If the vision is enlarged, the breakthrough of the self-actualization dilemma of young female teachers still needs the collaborative support of family, department, and school. However, few studies have investigated the role conflict and the endogenous/exogenous environmental contexts of female teachers in China’s universities and colleges, especially since the implementation of China’s ‘Universal Three-Child Policy’. The research questions are provided as follows:
(1):
How can we understand the pressure faced by female teachers in world-class universities?
(2):
What are the pressures faced by female teachers in world-class universities?
(3):
How can these challenges be addressed by female teachers in world-class universities?
Along with this research question, we applied ‘ecofeminism’ and ‘intersectionality’ perspectives to explore the challenges in their daily working and living status. The paper starts with an introduction to the development of female teachers in China’s world-class universities, followed by a review of ‘ecofeminism’ and ‘intersectionality’ perspectives on the development of female teachers. This is followed by the method and findings of the study in the fourth and fifth parts, and the discussion and conclusion are in the final section.

1.1. Role Conflicts and the Sustainable Development of Female Teachers

Sociologists have been studying role conflict since the 1940s. Samuel Stauffer believed that role conflict is “the tension to fulfill the incompatible rules of different organizations (p. 19)”. In his empirical study on the role obligations of conflict, he implied the assumptions that in any social organization, there are norms and the tension to adapt to these norms; if these norms are clear or unambiguous, individuals have no choice but to comply or suffer the consequences in resentment. It is incompatible for a person to assume roles in two or more organizations while obeying the rules of each, and he can only perform one activity. For example, he complies with a set of role expectations and bears the consequences of those roles he does not comply with. Subsequently, many scholars have studied role conflict based on this theoretical framework. After the 1960s, behavioral psychologists and management analysts began to conduct experimental studies on role conflict in organizational situations, and the research focus of role conflict also began to explore the relationship between role conflict, role ambiguity, and individual attitudes and behaviors [6].
To be specific, it is mainly manifested in the role conflict within the originator, and the expectation of the originator from a certain role is inconsistent. Personal role conflict refers to the inconsistency between the expectations of the role bearer and the expectations of the role issuer. Inter-role conflict refers to the expectation of a role from a certain position being inconsistent with that of a role from another position. The role bearer is expected to complete multiple inconsistent role behaviors in a short period of time. It can be seen that the connotation of role conflict by Kahn and other scholars [7] mainly refers to individuals often being faced with a situation that requires them to assume roles that conflict with their own value system or assume two or more conflicting roles. The inconsistency between such expectations leads to role conflict; that is, the most important characteristic of role conflict is inconsistency [8].
Along with the above, in this study, individuals play different roles at the same time, and each role has its own specific role set. The role partners interacting with the role set have certain role expectations for the development of female teachers. When these expectations are in conflict, each female teacher cannot simultaneously meet the expectations of different roles in external society due to the constraints of time, energy, and their own value tendency, and role conflict inevitably results [9]. Therefore, female teacher’s role conflict refers to the inner or emotional contradictions and conflicts caused by their failure to meet the requirements or expectations of multiple roles. The generation of role conflict and the intensity of role conflict experienced by female teachers usually depend on the nature of role expectations and individual role-playing ability. In other words, role conflict refers to the subjective state of inner contradiction caused by the inconsistencies between external role expectations or their own value system, the contradictions between various role tasks, and the failure of individuals to meet role expectations and adapt to role behaviors due to conditions when they assume one role or several roles at the same time [10]. Female teachers have three identities: gender identity, social identity, and professional identity. Under the impact of traditional culture and modern culture, the gender identity of female teachers in contemporary world-class universities faces the conflict between ‘equal person’ and ‘subsexual person’, the social identity faces the conflict between ‘public person’ and ‘family person’, and the professional identity faces the conflict between ‘academic person’ and ‘teaching person’.

1.2. The Sustainable Development of Female Teachers in Chinese Colleges and Universities

The literature on female teachers in colleges and universities focuses on the following three aspects: (1) career development and self-realization; (2) survival pressures and happiness indices; and (3) identity and role conflict [11].
For professional development and self-realization aspects, many researchers have considered the impact of the Universal Three-Child Policy on the career development of female teachers in colleges and universities [12,13]. The number of female teachers in Chinese universities is consistently increasing, and young female teachers account for a large proportion of the total teacher population. Relatively few female teachers hold senior professional titles, but young female teachers have opportunities ahead for career development, and their growth should be given proper attention [14,15]. The implementation of the Universal Three-Child Policy means that young female teachers may spend more time and energy on family responsibilities, inevitably impacting their career development. The practical dilemmas facing female teachers in colleges and universities include the decline of vocational skill levels, obstruction or interruption of occupational capital accumulation, the decline of career achievement motivation, and the tendency of career mobility not to be family-friendly [16,17].
Scholars have analyzed the problems in the career development of female teachers in colleges and universities from the dimension of power [18]. Although female teachers now account for half the teachers in colleges and universities, men remain at the top and center in terms of administrative power distribution, participation in school management, and teaching and scientific research achievements brought about by academic power. Women tend to be at lower levels on the fringes, presenting a clear gender-segregated state. The situation is mainly brought about by social gender factors, including traditional gender patterns, policies, institutions, families, and individuals [19]. Career development is closely related to self-actualization [20]. Researchers believe that although young female teachers actively explore the value of self-existence and constantly surpass themselves, they often face a self-realization dilemma, reflected in three main aspects: (1) In self-cognition and construction, they attach importance to the material and spiritual self but ignore construction of the social self. (2) The dynamic process of self-realization is experienced as far-removed from real life and deviates from the essence of existence [21]. (3) In terms of self-realization results, the original intention is often forgotten, secular reality is self-powerful, and the ideal self is exiled. The influence of multicultural values—especially those of individualism—makes the self-realization of young female teachers difficult. The overflow of rationality and the decline in values creates a dilemma in the self-realization methods of young female teachers. Young female teachers constantly face dilemmas in the process of self-realization because of the conflict between the role played and the transformation of that role [22].
Studies have analyzed the context in which female university teachers take on multiple roles from a ‘pressure cluster’ perspective. Female staff face several types of pressure at the same time—including teaching, scientific research, economic, promotion, and family pressure—and experience the effects of these accumulated forces [23]. Many studies have investigated women teachers’ general well-being in relation to demographic factors, such as age, educational background, and professional titles. While these aspects influence the well-being of female teachers in colleges and universities to some extent, not all factors demonstrate positive correlations. Greater age and seniority and higher degree levels were linked to lower levels of happiness. Thus, universities should pay more attention to female teachers’ happiness given its importance for the development of female teachers [18].
Role conflicts play an important part in the professional development of female teachers. Some researchers describe three layers of obstacles to the career development of junior female teachers in colleges and universities [24,25]. At the institutional level, the teacher management system often restricts teachers more than it supports them. The narrative discourse of female college teachers is closely related to their fragmented time, the hard work of not being understood, and the state of loneliness. They often feel lonely in their career development paths, facing difficulties in their career development alone. They describe the limitations of development space, power space, self-cognition, and positioning [26]. The behavior and practice status of female teachers in universities has changed from ‘struggle’ to ‘loneliness’ to ‘moving forward.’ Their professional, gender, and social identities are constructed in a unique way through this process.
Following the cultural perspective, researchers have noted that female teachers in colleges and universities have three identities: gender, social, and professional identity [27]. Female teachers in contemporary universities are confronted with the conflict between traditional and modern culture. In terms of gender identity, this conflict is characterized by ‘equal’ vs. ‘inferior’ person. For social identity, the conflict is between ‘public’ and ‘family’ person, and the professional identity conflict is between ‘academic’ and ‘teaching’ person [28]. Culture can be divided into three levels of concept, system, and behavior from the perspective of cultural diversity theory. From the perspective of concept, the identity of female teachers in colleges and universities is constructed by gender concepts such as the superior value of male lives, the success value of double standards, and maternal value. From a system perspective, family education, school education, and social indoctrination all form the identity of female teachers through cultural reproduction. The behavioral perspective suggests that the essences of time poverty, other-controlled time, and fragmented time are a type of gendered time that governs the identity of female teachers [29,30].
In contrast, female teachers in colleges and universities also carry out self-construction in an active way, leading to a cultural psychology of success fear, surrogate achievement, and gender defense. Power games involve roles such as transferring social power, controlling family power, transferring decision-making power, controlling affairs power, transferring academic power, and maintaining teaching power. To realize the cultural transcendence of female teacher identity, we need to appreciate the equal value of all lives—value should not differ based on gender characteristics—and construct the gender concept of ‘harmony with difference.’ At the systemic level, gender justice demands the elimination of explicit and implicit gender discrimination in education [31].

1.3. ‘Ecofeminism’ and ‘Intersectionality’ Perspectives on the Sustainable Development of Female Teachers

In this study, ecofeminism was applied to the environmental contexts embedded in the development of female teachers. Ecofeminism focuses on the historical, materialistic, and ideological relationship between women and their environments. It proposes a pluralist theory of body politics and cares about feminism and anti-colonial and environmental ethics and examines basic concepts embedded in traditional gender assumptions. [32,33]. The philosophy exemplifies a hybrid approach, as described by Bruno Latour, and is a product of breaking the framework of dualism.
Ecofeminism connects the concern for social justice with the holistic view of environmental justice in the development of female teachers [34]. Ecofeminists deconstruct the hegemonic dualism that stems from the ‘human/nature’ dichotomy, revealing how these dualities are exploited by people with gender, race, and class privileges to ‘otherwise’ those without such privileges—such as female teachers—to maintain their social and academic domination. An ecofeminist approach can help deepen female teachers’ self-reflection on how we are served by existing power relations and how we serve the construction of power relations [35]. Ecofeminism for the sustainable development of female teachers expects solidarity contexts and environments based on sharing. Diversity is emphasized rather than homogeneity, cooperation rather than competition, sharing rather than isolation, and value of use rather than value. Ecofeminism offers an alternative to the indigenous ethical overtones, emphasizing a more equal and sustainable existence and defending the rights of female teachers through organized action [36]. Intersectionality has also been used to explore the conflicting social identities of female teachers [37]. It is a conceptual framework used to identify and describe female teachers’ situations in which different aspects of identity conflict [38]. The components comprising overall identity may include gender, race, class, ethnic group, sexual orientation, religion, age, and mental or physical disability. Female teachers may experience a sense of subservience, where progression to a higher level signifies becoming a ruler who subjugates others [39]. Intersectionality clearly shows that no literary character is one-dimensional, and each person is the overlapping integration of multiple identities, which increases the dimensions and interest of literary and artistic aesthetics, making them more realistic. Intersectionality has been closely associated with feminism and ethnic studies since its inception, helping the disciplines expand their perspectives and benefit each other [40]. The intersectionality phenomenon also demonstrates how disadvantaged female teachers have pursued freedom of identity diversification and suffer from a diversification block [41].

2. Method

For the data collection and procedure, we conducted this study to explore how we can understand the dilemma faced by female teachers in world-class universities. In addition, we also try to check the strategies these individuals used on their pathway of sustainable development. From May 2020 to August 2022, we undertook semi-structured qualitative interviews with 28 female teachers in 6 world-class Chinese universities. The reason why we choose those six universities is to consider the nature of higher education institutions in China’s current higher education system. All six selected higher education institutions include the various types of universities, including comprehensive research universities and normal research universities. In particular, the comprehensive research university is a university that offers a comprehensive degree program, puts research first, and is committed to high-level personnel training and scientific and technological research and development. The normal research university refers to colleges and universities that train various kinds of teachers. It is from the past, relatively simple training of liberal arts, science, and engineering, training teaching personnel for more comprehensive universities. The interviews aimed to determine the endogenous/exogenous environmental contexts that influence female teachers’ living and working status, and how their social identities impact the professional development of female teachers experience. Each interview took approximately 20–25 min. All the selected participants agreed to answer the relevant research questions through a Tencent online platform. It is an audio and video conferencing software application under Tencent Cloud, which was launched at the end of December 2019. The software provides real-time screen sharing and enables online document collaboration. We recruited six research assistants, including two post-doctoral students and four master’s students. All six research assistants underwent two weeks’ training on the details of how to conduct this study. The selected female participants’ age ranges from 32 to 44. The reliability and validity have been checked in this process. Interview reliability is usually determined by comparing the ratings of the interviewee’s responses by two or more raters. The magnitude of the raters’ internal consistency coefficient, calculated from these ratings, varies with the particularity of the interview question and the rated behavior. According to the content of the interview outline and the actual interview situation, we evaluated the content of the interview outline to check the accuracy and integrity of the information. We also analyzed the questions in the interview outline to test the clarity, objectivity, and comprehensiveness of the questions. The children, title and working years, and affiliation type were included in the interviews. The research model can be presented in more detail with each participant. The research questions were generated by researchers and the interview questions include: Could you tell us about your current professional development? What problems or challenges are you faced with? Can you tell us about your current private living situation? How can you balance your academic development and taking care of your children? Do you have any suggestions on how to promote or balance professional and family life? All the selected female teachers came from one national scholar social network platform. To make the research have inter-rater reliability, before and during the formal interviews, we carefully introduced our research goals and research questions. Different participants provided their different opinions on the major research questions and also offered their concerns, attitudes, and perceptions on the current living and working status of female teachers. Based on the responses from the selected participants, we followed several steps to find out the key themes as follows: Firstly, we collected all the transcripts based on the research questions and also clarified the different meanings based on the their transcript. Secondly, in order to make the analysis more logical, we selected the common issues and keywords that they repeatedly mentioned in their interviews, such as role conflict, pressure, workload, cultures, male-dominated society, competition with male teachers, living and working difficulties, and so on. Thirdly, along with the repeated words and sentences that the participants mentioned in their discourse, we selected the major and central questions and issues based on previous investigations and communications. The major themes were selected among the key findings and words. The researchers maintained a stable and reliable relationships with the selected participants. They were conducted online by researchers, and recordings were transcribed by a member of the research team prior to analysis. Each transcript was classified by institutional name to enable the comparison of data in categories across higher education institutions (see Table 1). We applied a thematic approach to analyze the interview transcripts, and structural coding was used to categorize the data to examine comparable female teachers’ living and working relationships with their contexts. An initial codebook of deductive codes was also provided based on the research and interview questions. We checked the reliability of the coding process, and all discrepancies were discussed and resolved prior to the final analysis. For the data analysis, we applied three-level coding analysis. In the first level of coding analysis, we collected and cleared all the transcripts and then deleted irrelevant content and mistakes. In the second level, we divided the main transcript into several key coding themes, including the key words of the professional development of female teachers, family development, and family/university balance. In the third level, based on the key themes, the relevant key sentences or keywords were analyzed in this process. In this interview process, the participants also provided their strategies and comments on addressing the problems that they mentioned before. The analysis of their strategies of the sustainable development of female teachers have been provided in the discussion part.

3. Findings

Following the research questions of this study, the major results were analyzed separately. The following results are the responses to three major questions, as follows: “How can we understand the dilemma faced by female teachers in world-class universities?”, “What are the pressures faced by female teachers in world-class universities?”, and “How can these challenges be addressed by female teachers in world-class universities?”.

3.1. How We Can Understand the Dilemma Faced by Female Teachers: Role Conflict and Social Idenitity

For the research question on how we can understand the dilemma faced by female teachers, five interviewees argued that individuals are deeply involved in role conflict and cannot extricate themselves. Female teachers in world-class universities are faced with some contradictions in their identity construction. Six women teachers focus more on teaching, at which they are skilled, identifying themselves as ‘teaching workers’ and enjoying classroom time with students. However, the sense of achievement and gain from teaching cannot be compared with the achievements of scientific research. Some participants argue that they faced many difficulties of role conflict. Among them, one female teacher believed:
“Both men and women should have the same rights. However, in fact, [women] are required to undertake more housework in the family, and have lower expectations of achievement in society, leading a kind of ‘secondary sex’ existence. In fact, in practice, female teachers in world-class universities are still struggling with the positioning of ‘equality’ or ‘secondary’.”
For social identity, the question arose whether a female teacher is a family or social person. In the initial stage of career development, most female teachers are limited by their family commitments, which impedes their career development. Although teachers are busy and under a lot of pressure, their family members may not understand their stress and emotions and prefer that they set aside more time to be good wives and mothers. As women gradually enter the social field from the family field, their social identity transforms from family person to social person. However, stereotypes in traditional society, and the inherent thinking and behavior patterns formed in the socialization process of female teachers, make it difficult for them to achieve self-identity in the professional field. Seven participants suggest that obtaining self-identity is pivotal to promote the development of female teachers in higher education institutions. One participant pointed out:
“It is easy for female teachers in world-class universities to fall into a role conflict in which various identities are mixed, starting an endless ‘internal friction’ about the meaning of their own existence. Not only can this lead to severe anxiety and even physical and mental illness, but it can also lead to a vicious cycle in which all aspects of work are unmanageable because of the excessive distraction of physical and mental energy.”

3.2. The Pressures That Are Faced by Female Teachers: Family/Institutions/Society

For the question on what the pressures are faced by female teachers, some participants argued that Chinese universities and colleges should provide appropriate care, support, and flexible working times for female teachers raising children. Family members should encourage and support female teachers to manage housework within their capacity, reducing the pressure on female teachers. One interviewee argued:
“For female teachers in world-class universities, the two most important roles are wife and mother in the family and teacher in the school. However, in these two most critical scenes, they are often also in a vulnerable position and suffer from double pressure. In fact, the professional role of college teachers is often contradictory to the social and family roles of women.”
The occupation of college teachers usually has continuity and intersections in time and space. Scientific research is not divided into places and times, and teaching and research often extend outside of work. Thus, it is not easy to distinguish the boundary between work and life, which can become blurred, further intensifying conflict. Periods of career ascent overlap with periods of family hardship as female teachers navigate many challenges. If they do not adjust their status when needed, express their emotions effectively, and seek support and understanding from their units and families, the conflicts and negative effects of multiple social roles may lead to an unbalanced state. Female teachers in world-class universities also face serious problems with school management systems. Some teachers not only provide teaching tasks but also serve as administrative workers in a certain department, which not only makes female teachers very tired but also means they cannot concentrate on high-quality teaching and research work.
Four participants highlighted that female teachers are more cautious about their working relationships with colleagues. They worry more about their work circle, adding further pressure on female teachers. Such interpersonal relationships may mean female teachers struggle to concentrate on their own work, leading to physical and mental harm. Families and universities often put further pressure on mid-level female teachers by asking them to play a supportive function—a role that is counterproductive. One interviewee noted:
“As for the role conflicts faced by female teachers in colleges and universities, it is difficult for the government to force them to solve them directly through laws and regulations, and they can only be guaranteed through various policy tools. Most female college teachers believe that having a second child will affect their career development, and they are faced with great pressure, which makes them afraid to have a child even if they want to, and the dilemma of birth and promotion.”

3.3. How the Challenges Can Be Addressed by Female Teachers: Traditional Embedded Culture

For how to deal with the challenges encountered by female teachers, different participants hold various opinions on this question. The selected participants insisted that addressing the traditional embedded culture in China’s current society is considered one effective approach to determine the internal logic of female teachers. Six participants argued that, in a male-dominated society, all positions of authority are reserved for men, whether in politics, economics, law, religion, education, the military, or the family. In traditional Chinese culture, the differences between men and women in the social division of labor are deeply rooted, which has a profound impact on contemporary society’s views and concepts of gender difference. One participant highlighted:
“I think the biggest challenge of promoting the professional development of female teachers is the traditional cultural concept in China. In today’s cities, people’s living standards have been greatly improved, but it is far from the socialization of housework. The main task of professional women after work is still [to be] busy with housework and children’s education.”
With the great development of productive forces in China, people’s values have changed and the relationship between husbands and wives has begun to develop in the direction of equality, democracy, mutual assistance, and the further improvement of female consciousness. These factors have created conditions for solving the role conflict of professional women. One participant argued:
“The core and fundamental problem of female teachers in colleges and universities is women’s childbearing and housework. At the same time, the progress of society makes husbands not lower but raise their expectations of the role of their wives. They are no longer satisfied with the single role of their wives, but the unity of good wife and good mother and ‘capable woman’, that is, the so-called ‘up the hall, down the kitchen.’ There are still many men and women today who believe that it seems natural for men to put their careers first and women to put their families first.”
Seven participants pointed out that it is difficult for men to take positive steps toward gender cooperation, although most men agree that men and women should share housework. Men have traditionally resisted such roles and face psychological barriers to role-switching. As a result, professional women often fail to get active cooperation from their partners and encounter great difficulties in adjusting their family and social roles. One interviewee suggested:
“To fundamentally solve the dual role conflict of professional women, we must also rely on the progress of society and the change of people’s ideas, which will be a difficult and long process.”

4. Discussion and Conclusions

The aim of this study is to investigate the role conflict and endogenous/exogenous environmental culture pressure of the sustainable development of female teachers in world-class Chinese universities.
For the question on how we can understand the dilemma faced by female teachers, along with the findings above, we found that intersectionality in the face of role conflicts emphasizes the importance of strengthening subjective consciousness rather than being consumed by multiple identities and role conflicts. Policies also play a leading and supporting role. For many years, the Chinese government has taken effective measures to protect women’s reproductive rights (e.g., introducing new regulations for maternity leave) and to ensure fairness in financial regulations (e.g., revising the Individual Income-Tax Law). These measures reflect full humanistic care. After the implementation of the Universal Three-Child Policy, female teachers in world-class universities needed more active support from the state to manage their career development dilemmas and achieve personal career goals. Employers should be monitored to ensure full compliance with maternity and paternity leave standards for the parents of a second child [42]. In addition, in traditional Chinese society, men dominate the outside and women dominate the inside. However, after the founding of the People’s Republic of China, this pattern has been greatly different, and the role of women has undergone significant changes. In society, the situation that ‘women hold up half the sky’ has been formed. Modern society requires women to be able to master both inside and outside, and the work tasks of the unit are often shared by men and women. Regarding age, we found that young female teachers in Chinese colleges and universities have the highest level of education among female groups and enjoy a higher status and recognition in society. They love teaching and have unique advantages in the field of teaching, which cannot be doubted. However, through our study, we still found that they still belong to the relatively weak group among university teachers and management teams, and they are in a weak position in the university management and academic fields.
For the question on what pressures are faced by female teachers, comparing with current studies, we found that female teachers have role conflict and stereotypes of traditional society. The inherent thinking and behavior patterns brought about through female teachers’ socialization make it difficult for them to achieve self-identity in their professional development. Female teachers should strengthen their subjective consciousness rather than be consumed by multiple identities and role conflicts. Some studies have suggested the full protection of women’s reproductive rights to prevent gender discrimination arising from childbirth [43]. When formulating the rules for project applications, achievement awards, and professional title promotion for university teachers, age limits should be appropriately relaxed for female teachers, and an extension of project completion time for female teachers should be considered. There is a need to strengthen community childcare support and other public services, encourage and guide social forces to set up enough nursery schools as early as possible, improve the relevant system of the home economics industry, standardize management, and reduce the worries of female teachers in world-class universities. Ecofeminism emphasizes localized culture, promoting gender equality and changing customs. It is rooted in gender inequality and urges the promotion of cultural innovation and transformation of customs for greater gender equality. This change also promotes the transformation of the male gender concept, further promoting the development of gender equality practices.
For the question on how the challenges can be addressed by female teachers, an effective way of promoting gender equality and changing customs is to strengthen the equality and subject consciousness of female teachers in world-class universities who have already achieved advanced degrees. They could be used as examples of breaking through the ‘glass ceiling’ to change the culture and drive the innovation of the entire social atmosphere. In this process, the behaviors of female teachers will also effectively change the interaction mode within the family and promote the internal transformation of gender concepts in each family, ultimately benefitting female teachers’ work and lives [43].
Along with these findings, it is suggested that government and higher education institutions make relevant changes in terms of implementing some policy regarding promoting a comprehensive development system for female teachers. More effective institutional policies should be examined to explore the overall promotion of the development of female teachers.
There are also some limitations of this study: the limited and unbalanced sampling might not offer a more comprehensive perspective on the development of female teachers in world-class universities. For future studies, larger and more holistic sampling is needed. In this study, most of the participants were assistant professors, with a few associate professors. Therefore, this study had narrow sampling. The findings may be limited to junior levels of female teachers. More diverse participants need to be invited in future studies analyzing the real development of female teachers. For future studies regarding analyzing the sustainable development of female teachers in China, we suggest enlarging the sample size and diversifying the structure of the sample. More cultural and ethnic backgrounds are needed and need to be considered separately.
The implication of this study is to apply the ideas of ‘ecofeminism’ and ‘intersectionality’ perspectives to investigate the role conflict and endogenous/exogenous environmental culture pressure of female teachers in Chinese universities and colleges. This study offers a specific lens to examine the real problems and challenges encountered by the current female teachers in the higher education institutions. However, there are some limitations in terms of the selected sample participants. For future studies, we can explore more multiple stakeholder perspectives on how to promote the development of female teachers in higher education institutions. In addition, some case studies or comparative studies could be also conducted to examine a more in-depth understanding of the academic or professional development of female teachers contextually.

Author Contributions

Conceptualization, J.L. and E.X.; Validation, J.L.; Investigation, J.L. and K.L.; Resources, E.X.; Writing—original draft, J.L.; Writing—review & editing, J.L.; Funding acquisition, E.X. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

Funding

This research was funded by National Social Science Foundation Youth Project in Education “Study on Process Tracking and Effect Evaluation of Policy Implementation of Excellent Teacher Plan in Ministry-affiliated Normal Universities” (Project No.: CIA220282).

Institutional Review Board Statement

The study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki and approved by the Institutional Review Board of Faculty of Education of BNU.

Informed Consent Statement

Informed consent was obtained from all subjects involved in the study.

Data Availability Statement

Not applicable.

Acknowledgments

The study received approval from the university’s Ethical Research Committee. We would like to thank all the participants in this research who shared their valuable experiences with us.

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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Table
Table 1. Descriptions of the sampled participants.
Table 1. Descriptions of the sampled participants.
No.AgeNumber of ChildrenTitle and Working YearsAffiliation Type
1321Assistant professor/2Comprehensive research U
2341Assistant professor/3Normal research U
3362Assistant professor/5Comprehensive research U
4351Assistant professor/3Comprehensive research U
5341Assistant professor/3Comprehensive research U
6352Assistant professor/5Comprehensive research U
7362Assistant professor/5Normal research U
8422Associate professor/10Comprehensive research U
9402Associate professor/9Comprehensive research U
10321Assistant professor/1Comprehensive research U
11341Assistant professor/3Normal research U
12362Assistant professor/5Comprehensive research U
13371Associate professor/5Comprehensive research U
14341Assistant professor/3Comprehensive research U
15352Assistant professor/5Normal research U
16442Associate professor/4Comprehensive research U
17402Associate professor/10Normal research U
18372Associate professor/6Comprehensive research U
19352Assistant professor/5Normal research U
20341Assistant professor/4Comprehensive research U
21351Assistant professor/5Comprehensive research U
22311Assistant professor/1Comprehensive research U
23331Assistant professor/3Comprehensive research U
24341Assistant professor/3Comprehensive research U
25362Associate professor/4Normal research U
26372Assistant professor/5Comprehensive research U
27362Associate professor/5Comprehensive research U
28392Associate professor/9Normal research U
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Li, J.; Xue, E.; Li, K. Exploring the Challenges and Strategies of the Sustainable Development of Female Teachers in China’s World-Class Universities: Stakeholder Perspectives. Sustainability 2023, 15, 3488. https://doi.org/10.3390/su15043488

AMA Style

Li J, Xue E, Li K. Exploring the Challenges and Strategies of the Sustainable Development of Female Teachers in China’s World-Class Universities: Stakeholder Perspectives. Sustainability. 2023; 15(4):3488. https://doi.org/10.3390/su15043488

Chicago/Turabian Style

Li, Jian, Eryong Xue, and Kun Li. 2023. "Exploring the Challenges and Strategies of the Sustainable Development of Female Teachers in China’s World-Class Universities: Stakeholder Perspectives" Sustainability 15, no. 4: 3488. https://doi.org/10.3390/su15043488

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