Are boys and girls equally prepared for life?

Girls outperform boys in reading in all countries and economies by the equivalent of one year of school.

• In most countries and economies, girls underperform boys in mathematics; and among the highest-achieving students, the gender gap in favour of boys is even wider.

• The gender gap in mathematics performance mirrors the gender gap in students’ drive,
motivation and self-beliefs.

• Boys and girls tend to benefit equally when they are perseverant and motivated to learn, and have confidence in their abilities to learn mathematics. Consequently, the performance of both boys and girls suffers at the same rate when they lack motivation to learn and confidence in their own abilities.

Even at 15, boys and girls already have different ideas about their career paths.

The gender gaps in mathematics performance has largely remained stable over successive PISA assessments – which is not a good sign,considering that PISA results also show that both boys and girls can perform at the highest levels. More troubling, still, is the fact that the gender gap extends to students’ attitudes towards learning mathematics, which has repercussions in life well beyond school. Shrinking these gender gaps requires a concerted effort by parents and educators to challenge and eliminate gender stereotypes and bolster girls’ beliefs in themselves.

Closing the gender gap

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.

Mutilen porrota eskolarra / Boys crisis / chicos disruptivos

El fracaso escolar, ¿cuestión de sexo?


¿Qué hacer?

Una nueva perspectiva: reeducando la masculinidad.

To a growing list of books about the myths and mysteries of American boys and young males, Kimmel, a sociologist and author of Manhood In America, adds this deft exploration grounded in research. Published by HarperCollins, Guyland is based on more than 400 interviews over a four-year span with young men, ages 16–26

Guyland

"I am happy to say that Michael Kimmel weaves his vision for an alternative "guyhood" into every chapter of his book. Though the bulk of his strategy for change comes towards the end of Guyland, the whole text is shot through with thoughtful and compelling suggestions for how things can be different."

La masculinidad y la reticencia al cambio

Gizontasuna

Boys we love them