Implementation Challenges in Vocational Education for Rural Women in China: Institutional Design and Structural Constraints

Abstract

Vocational education is widely regarded as an important tool for China’s poverty alleviation efforts and rural revitalization. Relevant policies emphasize employment orientation and gender equality, but their actual effectiveness varies notably in practice. This paper examines issues in the design and implementation of vocational education policies for rural women and explores the reasons behind the gap between policy objectives and real-world outcomes. This study adopts a qualitative policy analysis approach. It constructs an analytical framework involving policy design, implementation processes, and outcome performance. By examining policy documents at both national and local levels and integrating existing research with relevant reports, the study analyzes institutional arrangements and implementation mechanisms. It focuses on structural factors, including gender norms, care responsibilities, curriculum design, and access to information. Findings show that while relevant policies have made some progress in resource allocation and training coverage, their underlying logic often maintains traditional gender divisions of labor. They pay insufficient attention to practical obstacles, such as caregiving burdens. At the implementation level, fixed training models, quantity-driven mobilization mechanisms, and unequal access to information limit rural women’s participation depth and agency. This hinders the stable conversion of training outcomes into employment and upward mobility. This paper argues that vocational education cannot truly promote the development of rural women until policy design systematically responds to structural gender constraints.