The Gender Gap in Education

Throughout education, it is recognised as important for all students to have equal opportunity in all possible ways.  We attempt to achieve this by making sure that all students are treated equally and not discriminated against, particularly in issues of race.  However, though the concept of sexism and discrimination against women seems almost outdated after the feminist achievements of the century and the long way that we’ve come, the gender gap in terms of both education and the workforce is still an issue today.

Just recently (October 25^th 2013), Australia was ranked 24^th on the latest gender gap index by the World Economic Forum.  In a recent article onnews.com.au, Sarah Millar notes that ‘Women in countries including South Africa, Cuba, Burundi, the Philippines, Latvia and Lesotho all enjoy greater equality with men than Australia.’ 

Gender inequality has been a sad fact over social history and affects women at all walks of life – and in terms of Australian education, things are no different.  Though women may be seen as experiencing the same education as men, there are noted gender differences in educational outcomes. Dee (2006) focuses on the differences between student/teacher interactions as a possible part of root reasons why this gender gap exists in education.

Dee notes ‘Recent discussions of gender interactions within classrooms have centred on controversial claims that teachers consistently privilege boys over girls (for example, with more positive feedback and helpful questions’.  It may be hard to recall far back enough into one’s primary education to remember having witnessed this type of behaviour and favouritism, and harder still from an individual’s perspective to be able to judge whether this type of behaviour was singular to the specific, sexist teacher or whether it is based on a larger trend – large enough to have such a profound effect on the gender gap in achievement in education.

Dee’s second point, however, is perhaps more easy to relate to one’s own schooling and identify as a trend from personal experience. Do student outcomes differ when students and teachers share the same gender?

From my own experience, I know that I have found it much easier to relate to certain teachers, often if they share my gender and might offer more relatable points of view.  However (at least in secondary school) it seems hard to place such a large emphasis on different outcomes due to this relationship (though possible in subjects such as English or History, it would be harder to be marked in favour in more straight fact-based subjects like Maths or Science), and unless this difference in achievement was based on a more personal tutoring relationship with the teacher in which the student felt more comfortable asking their own-gendered teacher for help, bias to such a large extent does seem difficult to carry over all areas of achievement.

Also to be considered is the amount of female teachers within schools. Teaching in the current time is seen as a female-appropriate career, and there are often more female teachers in a school than males.  If same-gendered favouritism has a large impact on students outcomes, female students (particularly in primary schools) should be getting ahead, rather than behind, forming this gender gap.

It is difficult to tell the exact root causes of the gender gap in achievement, particularly in terms of education and what might have led to the gender gap as seen in the workforce and Australian society – however, what is clear is that further education on the topic is necessary and Australia should be looking at countries further up the scale on the gender gap index to try and emulate them and create genuine equal opportunity in terms of gender for all.

References:

Millar, S. ‘Australia ranked 24th on latest gender gap index by World Economic Forum’ News.com.au, October 25, 2013 [accessed online at http://www.news.com.au/national/australia-ranked-24th-on-latest-gender-gap-index-by-world-economic-forum/story-fncynjr2-1226746874528]

Dee, T. S. (2007). Teachers and the gender gaps in student achievement.Journal of Human Resources, 42(3), 528-554.