Male underachievement in pursuit of postsecondary education could be explained by boys' relatively weaker reading abilities and the attenuation of negative attitudes about women attending college, a study finds. Across developed nations, men are less likely than women to pursue tertiary education. To explore the underlying reasons, Gijsbert Stoet and David Geary analyzed tertiary-education enrollment data, national reading scores of 15-year-old and 16-year-old individuals, and social attitudes toward women pursuing university education. The datasets covered up to 18 countries and included a sample size of 446,559 individuals. Men were less likely than women to pursue tertiary education in nations with comparatively higher reading scores for girls and with less negative attitudes toward women attending university. The gender gap in enrollment was lower in countries with higher reading scores for boys. A model predicted that the representation of men among students enrolled in tertiary education would drop from 46% to approximately 39% if discriminatory attitudes against women attending college were eliminated. By contrast, approximately 51% of students enrolled in tertiary education would be men if reading scores were equal for boys and girls. Because reading proficiency has remained largely stagnant in most countries over the past decade, Western nations are unlikely to become close to achieving gender parity for postsecondary education in the near future, according to the authors.
Article #20-02861: "Gender differences in the pathways to higher education," by Gijsbert Stoet and David C. Geary.
MEDIA CONTACT: Gijsbert Stoet, University of Essex, Colchester, UNITED KINGDOM; e-mail: g.stoet@essex.ac.uk
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Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences