Hello, I’m Jiang Lai. This episode begins Chapter One, “Women in Institutions.”

We often imagine a woman’s life as a chain of personal choices. Walk through it in full, however, and institutions stand at every junction, quietly defining what she may choose and what each choice will cost.

We begin with the first stop: the arrangements policy and institutions make for women in education.

Education and credential worship now form the basic narrative of the elite path.

Media profiles of China’s internet magnates emphasize top exam scorers and elite universities. Jack Ma, from Hangzhou Normal University, may be the rare exception to the “985/211” rule: employers recognize only those prestigious degrees, leaving others little room in the job market.

This is not uniquely Chinese. American profiles celebrate Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, and MIT, even stressing that a founder dropped out of Harvard or Stanford. In South Korea, SKY—Seoul National, Korea, and Yonsei—has long been currency in elite careers, business and political networks, and marriage.

No wonder parents worldwide make elite-school competition a life project. Bourdieu called diplomas and knowledge a form of capital, exchangeable like money for a good job, a high starting point, and upward mobility.

Educational capital is now disputed through critiques of meritocracy, exam competition, and declining returns, but that is not our focus.From an institutional perspective, did this exchange system ever work equally for everyone? What changes if it is gendered?

To answer, step back to an earlier door: whether women could study at all.

Think of the top student you knew growing up: often a girl in the front row, diligent, orderly, consistent, trusted by teachers and parents. For Chinese people born in the 1970s and 1980s, ours was the first generation to watch large numbers of girls excel academically.

As a university teacher, I naturally admire curious, diligent, ambitious, capable students. Today a notably high share are women. Women predominate among national scholarship recipients, recommended graduate admissions, and successful postgraduate applicants, an impression many colleagues share.