International Women’s Day: Girls and boys

How are girls doing in school – and women doing

in employment – around the world

On the 2009 PISA reading assessment, girls outperformed boys in every country, and on average

by 39 score points – the equivalent of one year of schooling. By contrast, boys tend to outperform

girls in mathematics.

An estimated 66% of young women in OECD countries are expected to enter a university

programme during their lifetime, compared to 52% of young men.

Men are more likely than women to hold advanced research qualifications, and 74% of all graduates

in the fields of engineering, manufacturing and construction are men.

Higher (tertiary) education improves job prospects for both men and women, and the gender

gap in employment narrows at the highest levels of educational attainment.

 Boys are getting lost in today’s life and we don’t really understand why. 

 (...) We don’t gain much if we gain on one side and lose on the other.

 It’s all about empowerment: having equal opportunities to realise our individual potential. 

And that is something that should not be gender-specific.

A Women’s Day Challenge

by Barbara Ischinger
Director for Education and Skills

Women in Science

Science remains institutionally sexist. Despite some progress, women scientists are still paid less, promoted less frequently, win fewer grants and are more likely to leave research than similarly qualified men. This special issue of Nature takes a hard look at the gender gap — from bench to boardroom — and at what is being done to close it.