A Chinese publisher has pulled its gendered math books from the market and apologised after they received numerous amounts of backlash on Chinese social media sites.
The math books published by The East China Normal University Press (ECNUP) came in two versions, a blue one for boys and a pink one for girls, reports CBS News.
ECNUP posted on its official account on Chinese social media site WeChat, explaining the differences between the books were supposed to cater to each gender's strengths and weaknesses.
The boys' version reportedly used examples such as games while the girls' version included shopping tasks.
ECNUP claimed there was no difference in difficulty between the two books even though the WeChat post was titled: "My daughter is great at math so she should buy the male version."
The books quickly received online backlash and were labelled as "sexist", "sick" and "disappointing".
A concerned parent told Chinese newspaper Guanchazhe she feared her daughter may be reluctant to study maths after seeing these books.
"She might think she is born inferior to boys at math," the parent said.
ECNUP has apologised for the "negative impact" of the books and has stopped publication.
