Abstract: The accumulation of human capital is an important source of economic growth.Firstly,this paper constructs a theoretical model which assumes that the depreciation rate of labor force productivity is different between father and mother.Our model concludes that women will be more willing to increase the children's human capital investment because of their faster depreciation of labor force productivity.Secondly,empirical evidence from household education investment decisions in the CFPS (2014) data suggests that the improvement of women's family status significantly increases the proportion of children's human capital investment,and this effect is more obvious for rural female groups.Furthermore,sons get more human capital investment over all.This suggests that poverty alleviation projects targeting women,especially improving women's family status,will be more conducive to improve children's human capital.

Key words: family status, human capital investment, gender preference, labor force productivity