Teacher emotional well-being is under challenges. Although previous research has revealed the positive effects of responsible leadership in education fields, its influence on teacher emotional well-being has remained underdeveloped. Therefore, this study aimed to fill the research gap by examining the direct effect of responsible leadership on teacher emotional well-being and testing the mediation effects of teacher recognition and gender difference. By surveying a total of 486 teacher responses working in public primary and secondary schools in China, the study revealed that responsible leadership is associated with teacher emotional well-being significantly through the mediation effect of recognition for social esteem and a significant gender difference among these relationships. The findings and implications are discussed further.