Gender, Education and Skills

Gender equality in education is a matter of social justice, opportunities and freedoms. It is crucial for sustainable development, for peaceful societies and for individual wellbeing. Gender-equitable education systems empower girls and boys and promote the development of life skills – like self-management, communication, negotiation and critical thinking – that young people need to succeed. They also help close skills gaps that perpetuate pay gaps and contribute to the prosperity for entire countries. Over the past century, OECD countries and other partner countries have made significant progress in narrowing or closing long-standing gender gaps in many areas of education and employment, including educational attainment, pay and labour market participation. However, new gendered patterns in education have come to light and this report seeks to highlight and examine these gender gaps using the most recent data from the Survey of Adult Skills (PIAAC), the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), and Education at a Glance (EAG).

The report starts with an introduction that presents the main highlights from the remainder of the report. Section 2 then goes on to show that gender gaps in upper secondary education attainment have almost closed with more than 80% of women on average across the OECD completing education at this level. But the section also reveals that in most countries, those who quit school early are predominantly men. Data from PIAAC shows that, on average across OECD countries, 58% of early school leavers among all 18-24-year-olds are men.

Looking beyond attainment at the upper secondary education level, Section 3 analyses the gender gaps in performance in upper secondary education. Gender gaps in cognitive skills of boys and girls around age 15 are similar across countries: girls outperform boys in reading in all countries and while boys do better than girls in mathematics, they do so by a much smaller margin than that of girls doing better than them in reading. It is also observed that even though the gender gaps in mathematics are not too large, among high-achieving students, boys tend to significantly outperform girls in mathematics. Section 4 tries to explain these interesting findings. It posits that student attitudes (motivation, interest) in studying a particular subject rather than their ability. Boys tend to fall behind girls in reading because they spend much less time reading outside of school, spend less time doing their homework and also use the Internet for leisure for longer hours than girls. Girls, especially high-achieving girls, tend to underperform in mathematics because they generally have lesser self-confidence than boys in their ability to solve mathematics or science problems. They are also more likely to express strong feelings of anxiety towards mathematics. This fear of failure and lack of confidence in their abilities is often exacerbated by the gender stereotypes that girls face at home, in school and within their communities.

Section 5 then tries to understand the transition from school to tertiary education and the gender gaps at higher levels of education. While the share of women with tertiary education has risen consistently in recent decades, young women are much less likely than young men to choose Science, Technology, Engineering, or Mathematics (STEM) as fields of study at graduate level. The share of women in these fields further declines at the post-graduate level. The existence of gender gaps in fields of tertiary study indicates that young women often do not translate their good school performance into fields of studies for higher education that offer better employment prospects, such as STEM studies. This is explained by the lack of self-confidence girls have in their mathematics and science abilities during school which may be one of the first fissures that widen into the gender gap in students’ pathways towards STEM-related careers. Added to that is the lack of role models for girls in STEM fields, which means that young girls have little tangible evidence to disprove the notion that mathematics and science are somehow more “masculine” disciplines.

Sections 6 and 7 discuss the skill levels of university students and those of adults later in life. These sections highlight with data that since more men than women choose fields of study with higher mathematical content, such as STEM fields, this could explain why the use of advanced mathematics among university students is overwhelmingly greater among men. This disproportionately higher likelihood that men will specialise in fields of study that make more intensive use of numeracy skills could also explain the wide gender gap in numeracy skills among university students and later on in the general adult population.

Section 8 emphasises the inevitable consequences of these gender imbalances in fields of study and choices of careers. More women have indeed entered the workforce in recent years, but they often experience more difficulty than men in finding a first job, earn less than men, and are more likely to work part time. Furthermore, the fields of study that young women and men choose perpetuate gender segregation in the labour market, with women under-represented in the STEM sector and concentrated in health, welfare, education and administrative jobs.

These gendered patterns raise concern for policy makers for a number of reasons- they imply an under-utilisation and misallocation of talent, which limits economic growth. In addition, horizontal segregation in the field of study contributes to occupational segregation, which hinders employment opportunities and significantly contributes to gender gaps in earnings. Section 9 thus offers ways and key learnings from different countries that could be used to address these systemic and pervasive gender gaps in a systematic and planned manner. Countries must step up their efforts through sustained campaigns, monitoring policies aimed at gender equality, greater public investment, and the introduction and expansion of legal measures. The policy suggestions in this report could serve as a toolkit for policy makers and stakeholders willing to tackle gender inequality. The time is now to ensure that better policies lead to better lives – for girls and boys, and for women and men.