Joining Forces for Gender Equality

8. Participation and performance of girls and boys in education

Marta Encinas-Martín

Abstract

This chapter starts by presenting an overview of the gender gaps in educational attainment in tertiary education. It then analyses existing gender gaps in reading, science and mathematics at school, and focuses on how gender differences in performance vary by students’ proficiency level. It concludes with reflections on policy responses that are needed to address gender gaps in school performance.

Key findings

• Over the past years, women’s participation in and completion of higher education has significantly expanded in the OECD and partner countries, and a gender gap in educational attainment in favour of women is opening up among 25‑34 year‑olds. Women make up at least half of all 25‑34 year‑olds with bachelor’s, masters or doctoral or equivalent attainment in every OECD country except Japan.

• Girls tend to perform better than boys in reading and science at school, and their disadvantage in mathematics is diminishing. 15‑year‑old boys are more likely than girls of the same age to be low achievers; in contrast, boys perform slightly better than girls in mathematics, particularly among the highest-achieving students.

• The average performance of boys and girls masks wide variations amongst students at the extreme ends of the performance distribution.

A gender gap in educational attainment is opening up in tertiary education

Tertiary attainment has increased strongly in most OECD countries among 25‑34 year‑olds. The average share of younger adults with a tertiary degree has increased from 27% in 2000 to 48% in 2021. Over the last decade, women’s participation in and completion of higher education has significantly expanded in the OECD and partner countries, and a gender gap in educational attainment is opening up among 25‑34 year‑olds, compared with a more balanced gender ratio among older adults (55‑64 year‑olds). Women make up at least half of all 25‑34 year‑olds with bachelor’s, master’s or doctoral or equivalent attainment in every OECD country except Japan. Yet, the share of women tends to decrease at the highest level of tertiary education. On average across the OECD, women account for 58% of recent graduates with a bachelor’s or equivalent degree, 58% of recent graduates with a master’s or equivalent degree, and 48% of those with doctoral or equivalent degree (OECD, 2022[1]).

The reasons for women outnumbering men at bachelor’s and master’s level include that men and women tend to choose different fields of study (see below) with men being more likely to have career goals that do not require tertiary education (OECD, 2021[2]). Men are also more likely to work while studying, and therefore less likely to complete their tertiary education within the expected time required (Quintini, 2015[3]). Much of the remaining gap is likely due to differences in foundation skills (including reading, as discussed below) and in personal traits such as self-regulation, perseverance and motivation, which are important for succeeding in tertiary education where external supervision is limited (OECD, 2021[2]; 2021[4]) (Chapter 10). Looking outside the OECD, existing research shows that the long trend of increasing proportions of women among tertiary education students continued across Asia and Northern Africa and, albeit at a slower rate, in Sub-Saharan Africa (Global Education Monitoring Report Team, 2020[5]; OECD, 2022[6]).

Girls tend to perform better than boys in reading and science at school, and their disadvantage in mathematics is narrowing

Girls are also outperforming boys in reading at school. In OECD PISA 2018, girls outperformed boys in reading by almost 30 score points on average across OECD countries and in every participating country and economy. Also, in many countries the gender gap in reading literacy increased slightly over the past years (Figure 8.1). The size of the reading literacy gap varies across countries. The narrowest gender gaps (less than 20 score points) were observed in Argentina, Beijing, Shanghai, Jiangsu and Zhejiang (China) (hereafter “B-S-J-Z [China]”), Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico, Panama and Peru; the widest (more than 50 score points) were observed in Finland, Jordan, the Republic of North Macedonia (hereafter “North Macedonia”), Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (OECD, 2019[7]).

Figure 8.1. The gender gap in reading increased slightly between 2015 and 2018 across the OECD

Notes: International Average (OECD) includes all OECD countries for which data are available for the corresponding subject and year.

Source: OECD PISA 2015 and 2018, Reading performance (PISA), https://data.oecd.org/pisa/reading-performance-pisa.htm.

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While boys have historically registered better performance in mathematics, girls have advanced in recent years. In OECD PISA 2018, boys outperformed girls in mathematics by a much smaller margin than girls outperformed boys in reading. The average gender gap in mathematics amounted to only five score points in favour of boys, on average across OECD countries. Despite the stereotype that boys are better than girls at mathematics, boys significantly outperformed girls in mathematics in only 32 of the 79 countries and economies that participated in OECD PISA 2018. The largest difference in scores in favour of boys was seen in Colombia, where boys scored around 20 points higher than girls. In Argentina, Costa Rica, Italy and Peru, the difference amounted to between 15 and 18 points. In many other countries, there is no significant difference. However, in 14 countries and economies (Brunei Darussalam, Finland, Iceland, Indonesia, Malaysia, Malta, North Macedonia, Norway, the Philippines, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Thailand and the United Arab Emirates), girls significantly outperformed boys in mathematics (OECD, 2019[7]).

In science, girls outperformed boys by two score points in OECD PISA 2018; and in around half of the countries/economies assessed, the gender gap in science performance was not statistically significant. In only six countries/economies was boys’ performance in science significantly higher than that of girls; the opposite was observed in 35 countries and economies. The widest gender gaps in science performance, in favour of girls, were observed in Qatar (a gap of 39 points), Jordan (29 points), Saudi Arabia (29 points) and the United Arab Emirates (26 points) (OECD, 2019[7]).

Gender differences in performance vary largely by students’ proficiency level

The average performance of boys and girls masks wide variations amongst students at different proficiency levels. Using data from several large‑scale international surveys, including previous cycles of OECD PISA (from 2000 to 2012), Baye and Monseur (2016[8]) show that gender differences vary largely by students’ proficiency level, and that the gender differences at the extreme ends of the performance distribution are often more substantial than gender differences at the mean (OECD, 2019[7]).

OECD PISA 2018 results also show variability in boys’ and girls’ performance. In most participating countries and economies, the variation in performance in reading, mathematics and science was larger amongst boys. A larger standard deviation and lower mean reading performance amongst boys strongly implies that more boys than girls would be expected to score towards the bottom of the performance scale. As shown in Figure 8.2), boys are over-represented amongst students who scored below 450 points, while the opposite is observed amongst students who scored higher (OECD, 2019[7]).

Figure 8.2. Distribution of proficiency in reading and mathematics by gender

Note: This figure is a histogram of performance using an interval size of five score points.

Source: OECD (2018[9]), PISA 2018 Database, https://www.oecd.org/pisa/data/2018database.

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OECD PISA found that 15‑year‑old boys are more likely than girls of the same age to be low achievers. On average across OECD countries, 28% of boys and only 18% of girls did not reach Level 2 proficiency in reading, which is considered a “minimum” proficiency level. In 26 PISA-participating countries and economies, more than one in two boys did not reach Level 2 proficiency in reading. Only in B-S-J-Z (China), Canada, Estonia, Finland, Hong Kong (China), Ireland, Korea, Macao (China), Poland and Singapore did more than four in five boys attain Level 2 proficiency in reading. By contrast, in 36 countries and economies, more than four in five girls attained at least this level of proficiency in reading. Reading proficiency is the foundation upon which all other learning is built; when boys and girls do not read well, their performance in other school subjects suffers too (OECD, 2019[7]).

Given these results, the weak reading performance amongst boys, also observed in previous OECD PISA assessments, should be a matter of considerable concern in several countries.

The sizeable number of boys who fail to make the grade in all three core OECD PISA subjects is a major challenge for education systems. Students who perform poorly in all subjects are hard to motivate and keep in school (Chapter 10). Because of their very low levels of skills, these students may also feel disconnected from and disengaged with school. It may then become easier for these students to build an identity based on rebellion against school and formal education than to engage and invest the effort needed to break the vicious cycle of low performance and low motivation (OECD, 2015[10]).

There are many possible reasons for boys’ poor performance in school, and many of them relate to differences in behaviour between boys and girls. Previous analyses of OECD PISA data suggest that girls tend to spend more time than boys doing homework. This is important because in several countries and economies that participated in OECD PISA 2012, homework time was positively correlated with student performance (OECD, 2014[11]). In a subset of 32 countries and economies that participated in OECD PISA 2018, students were also asked how long they studied before going to school and after school on the most recent day prior to the PISA test. On average across OECD countries where this optional questionnaire was distributed, 64% of boys and 73% of girls reported that they had studied at home for more than one hour on the day immediately prior to the PISA test (OECD, 2019[7]). Moreover, outside of school, boys spend more time playing video games than girls and less time reading for enjoyment, particularly complex texts, like fiction (OECD, 2015[10]).

The picture is quite different when looking at high-performing students, especially for mathematics. OECD PISA results show that boys perform better than on average across OECD countries, 12.3% of boys and 9.5% of girls attained the highest levels of mathematics performance (Level 5 or 6), while 7.3% of boys and 6.2% of girls were top performers in science (OECD, 2019[7]).

As in the case of low performance of boys, there could be many possible reasons for the underachievement of high-performing girls in mathematics. In general, girls have less self-confidence than boys in their ability to solve mathematics or science problems. Girls – even high-achieving girls – are also more likely to express strong feelings of anxiety towards mathematics. In 70 countries and economies that participated in OECD PISA 2018, girls reported more often, and to a larger extent, than boys that they fear failure (OECD, 2019[7]). OECD PISA revealed that self-efficacy (the extent to which students believe in their own ability to solve specific mathematics tasks) and self-concept (students’ beliefs in their own mathematics abilities) are much more strongly associated with performance among high-achieving than low-achieving students; but at every level of performance, girls tend to have much lower levels of self-efficacy and self-concept in mathematics and science. At the same time, girls tend to be highly motivated to do well in school and to believe that doing well at school is important. They also tend to fear negative evaluations by others more than boys do and are eager to meet others’ expectations for them. Given girls’ keen desire to succeed in school and to please others, their fear of negative evaluations, and their lower self-confidence in mathematics and science, it is hardly surprising that high-achieving girls choke under (often self-imposed) pressure (OECD, 2015[10]).

The COVID‑19 pandemic and the related school closures and home schooling have likely contributed to gendered differences in education outcomes and experiences (Box 8.1).

Box 8.1. During the COVID‑19 pandemic, education systems struggled between school closures and home schooling

The COVID‑19 pandemic and ensuing lockdowns and school closures have meant a shift to online or distance learning with students having to spend more time at home. There is widespread evidence that this shift contributes to raising inequalities between income groups (OECD, 2020[12]). Academic progress is slower compared to years before the pandemic, with larger learning losses among students from disadvantaged backgrounds (Engzell, Frey and Verhagen, 2021[13]).

Initial research on gender differences in COVID‑19 related learning outcomes is scattered, but indications of gendered impacts exist. First, it is likely that the gaps in reading and mathematics between boys and girls have grown since the COVID‑19 outbreak. Research based on UK surveys of children aged 8‑18 has found that the gender reading gap had increased from just over 2 percentage points (p.p.) in favour of girls at the start of 2020 to 11.5 percentage points after the first lockdown in spring 2020 (Clark and Picton, 2020[14]). On the other hand, a comparison of learning outcomes among 10‑ to 15‑year‑olds in Mexico indicates that the gender mathematics gap, with girls falling behind, has widened among students with low socio‑economic backgrounds (Hevia et al., 2022[15]).

Home schooling and digital learning settings can work differently for boys and girls. Because schools are places that provide daily structure, social interaction and emotional support, COVID‑19 school closures have had adverse effects on child well-being. While both girls and boys reported decreased mental health, girls reported higher levels of stress, anxiety and depression than boys. School closures also meant a higher exposure to the risk of gender-based violence (OECD, 2020[12]). In addition, there may be gender differences in the access to digital tools, and especially in various non-OECD countries, where girls’ use of internet devices is more monitored and restricted due to cultural norms (UNESCO, 2021[16]). Many girls may also choose to spend less time on the internet due to fear of being harassed. According to a recent survey, girls who report having experienced online harassment are also more likely to report experiencing difficulties at school (Plan International, 2020[17]).

Source: OECD (2022[6]), Report on the Implementation of the OECD Gender Recommendations, https://www.oecd.org/mcm/Implementation-OECD-Gender-Recommendations.pdf.

Different policy responses are needed to address gender gaps in school performance

The nature and implications of gender gaps in skills change over time. Gender gaps in reading skills have shown to shrink with age. The gender gaps in reading performance observed amongst 15‑year‑olds in PISA virtually disappears amongst the 16‑29 year‑olds who were assessed by the OECD Survey of Adult Skills (PIAAC). To some extent this may have to do with differences in the cohorts; but another explanation is that literacy is a transversal skill that is necessary to develop in order to succeed in the modern labour market. It is possible that this encourages men to develop and catch up with their female counterparts as they enter the labour market. This means that narrowing gender gaps in reading does not necessarily require expensive reform, but it needs to be supported (Box 8.2).

Box 8.2. Encouraging boys to read

Finding ways to improve schools’ disciplinary climate and teachers’ relationships with students (boys in particular) and instilling a culture of assessment both for students and teachers can help bridge the gap in reading performance between girls and boys

TALIS-PISA link data allows to identify various reason behind the reading gap between boys and girls. When there are classroom disciplinary problems, boys seem to be more disturbed by this than girls are Also, boys tend to benefit more from positive relationships with their teachers than girls: in schools where teachers consider their relationships with students to be positive, gender disparities in reading performance are smaller, in favour of boys. Moreover, boys are more likely to perform as well as (or even better) than girls in reading in schools that have a culture of student assessment, and teacher accountability and appraisal. The more often teachers evaluate their students by administering their own assessment, the smaller the difference in reading performance between girls and boys, in favour of boys (OECD, 2021[18]; 2021[19]).

Countries have been promoting specific initiatives to foster better reading habits among students, particularly boys. The “Lesestart” programme in Germany distributes books and reading guides to children aged one to three, in co‑operation with paediatricians and local libraries (OECD, 2015[10]). In 2021, the United Kingdom launched a GBP 10 million scheme to help pupils starting primary and secondary school boost core skills. Specialist training and materials will be provided to support focused sessions to boost numeracy and literacy; schools with high proportions of children from disadvantaged backgrounds will be prioritised (UK Government, 2021[20]).

By contrast, in mathematics, the advantage of men increases steadily in an almost linear way (Borgonovi, Choi and Paccagnella, 2021[21]). A plausible reason is that men tend to specialise in fields that use numeracy skills more intensively. Advanced mathematics is less commonly used and not an imperative to succeed, so women who are not in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) sectors have little reason to catch up with their male counterparts (Borgonovi, Choi and Paccagnella, 2021[21]).

Students’ beliefs about their own competence in mathematics are related to how well they perform compared to their classmates, and also to how well they perform in mathematics compared to their own performance in other subjects. Because girls tend to perform so well in reading, they may, unconsciously, believe that they are underperforming in other subjects. As a result, they have less confidence in other subjects, like mathematics, which, in turn, could undermine their performance. Teachers and parents can stop the corrosive effects of these comparisons and help girls to build their confidence by evaluating girls’ actual abilities – noting the tasks they can accomplish relatively easily and those with which they struggle (Encinas-Martin and Cherian, 2023[22]). They can provide positive reinforcement for the work girls do well and offer girls opportunities to “think like scientists” in low-stakes situations, where making mistakes does not have consequences for their marks.

This means that narrowing gender gaps in mathematics requires early and life‑long interventions. For instance, certain methods of teaching mathematics can also help narrow the gender gap in performance. For example, OECD PISA reveals that girls benefit the most when teachers ask students questions that make them reflect on a given problem; give them problems that require the students to think for an extended time; ask students to decide, on their own, on which procedures to use to solve complex problems; present problems in different contexts so that students know whether they have understood the concepts; help them learn from the mistakes they have made; ask them to explain how they solved a problem; present problems that require students to apply what they have learned in new contexts; and assign problems that can be solved in different ways (OECD, 2015[10]).

Overall, the above actions require concerted efforts by parents, teachers and employers to become more aware of their own conscious or unconscious biases so that they give boys and girls equal chances for success at school and beyond (Schleicher, 2019[23]).

Key policy messages

• Finding ways to improve schools’ disciplinary climate and teachers’ relationships with students (boys in particular) and instilling a culture of assessment both for students and teachers can help bridge the gap in reading performance between boys and girls.

• Policy should also foster approaches to narrow the gender gaps in mathematics with early and life‑long interventions. For instance, certain methods of teaching mathematics can help narrow the gender gap in performance. Moreover, teachers and parents can stop the corrosive effects of these comparisons and help girls to build their confidence by evaluating girls’ actual abilities.

• Overall, the above actions require concerted efforts by parents, teachers and employers to become more aware of their own conscious or unconscious biases so that they give girls and boys equal chances for success at school and beyond.

References

[8] Baye, A. and C. Monseur (2016), “Gender differences in variability and extreme scores in an international context”, Large-scale Assessments in Education, Vol. 4/1, https://doi.org/10.1186/s40536-015-0015-x.

[21] Borgonovi, F., A. Choi and M. Paccagnella (2021), “The evolution of gender gaps in numeracy and literacy between childhood and young adulthood”, Economics of Education Review, Vol. 82, p. 102119, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.econedurev.2021.102119.

[14] Clark, C. and I. Picton (2020), Children and young people’s reading in 2020 before and during the COVID-19 lockdown, https://literacytrust.org.uk/research-services/research-reports/children-and-young-peoples-reading-in-2020-before-and-during-the-covid-19-lockdown/.

[22] Encinas-Martin, M. and M. Cherian (2023), Gender, Education and Skills: The Persistence of Gender Gaps in Education and Skills, OECD Skills Studies, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/34680dd5-en.

[13] Engzell, P., A. Frey and M. Verhagen (2021), “Learning loss due to school closures during the COVID-19 pandemic”, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. 118/17, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2022376118.

[5] Global Education Monitoring Report Team (2020), Global education monitoring report 2020: gender report, A new generation: 25 years of efforts for gender equality in education, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000374514.

[15] Hevia, F. et al. (2022), “Estimation of the fundamental learning loss and learning poverty related to COVID-19 pandemic in Mexico”, International Journal of Educational Development, Vol. 88, p. 102515, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijedudev.2021.102515.

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[17] Plan International (2020), Free to Be Online?, https://plan-international.org/file/46061/download?token=pH3r4scC.

[3] Quintini, G. (2015), “Working and learning: A diversity of patterns”, OECD Social, Employment and Migration Working Papers, No. 169, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/5jrw4bz6hl43-en.

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[20] UK Government (2021), £10 million scheme to help pupils boost core skills, https://www.gov.uk/government/news/10-million-scheme-to-help-pupils-boost-core-skills.

[16] UNESCO (2021), When schools shut: Gendered impacts of COVID-19 school closures, https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000379270.