Gender Gaps in Education: The Long View

  • R Research Project/Report/Study

I Inactive

Key Information

Many countries remain far from achieving gender equality in the classroom. Using data from 126 countries between 1960 and 2010, we document four facts. First, women are more educated today than fifty years ago in every country in the world. Second, they remain less educated than men in the vast majority of countries. Third, in many countries with low levels of education for both men and women in 1960, gender gaps widened as more boys went to school, then narrowed as girls enrolled; thus, gender gaps got worse before they got better. Fourth, gender gaps rarely persist in countries where boys are attaining high levels of education. Most countries with large, current gender gaps have low levels of male educational attainment. Many also perform poorly on other measures of development such as life expectancy and GDP per capita. Improving girls’ education is an important goal in its own right, but closing gender gaps in education will not be sufficient to close critical gaps in adult life outcomes.


Lead Implementing Organization(s)

Location(s)

Global

Government Affiliation

Non-governmental program

Years

None - 2020

Ministry Affiliation

Unknown

Funder(s)

Not applicable or unknown

COVID-19 Response

Unknown

Geographic Scope

Global / regional

Meets gender-transformative education criteria from the TES  

Unknown

Areas of Work Back to Top

Education areas

Attainment

  • Post-secondary
  • Primary completion
  • Primary enrollment
  • Primary to secondary transition
  • Secondary completion

Cross-cutting areas

Not applicable or unknown


Program participants

Target Audience(s)

Girls (both in school and out of school), Youth

Age

Not applicable or unknown

School Enrolment Status

Some in school

School Level

  • Lower primary
  • Upper primary
  • Lower secondary
  • Upper secondary

Other populations reached

  • Boys (both in school and out of school)

Participants include

Not applicable or unknown

Program Approaches Back to Top

Policy/legal environment

  • Developing/promoting new laws/policies

Reducing economic barriers

  • Reducing/eliminating school fees

Women's empowerment programs

  • Advocacy/action

Program Goals Back to Top

Education goals

Not applicable or unknown

Cross-cutting goals

Not applicable or unknown