This paper presents an overview of gender differences in education
outcomes in OECD countries. A rich set of indicators describes the
improvement of educational attainment among women over the past decades,
and various dimensions of male under-performance in education.
Possible
explanatory factors include incentives provided by changing employment
opportunities for women, demographic trends, as well as the higher
sensitivity of boys to disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds.
Gender
differences in field of study and in performance by subject are found to
be related to attitudes and self-perceptions towards academic subjects,
which are in turn influenced by social norms. A number of policy
options to address gender gaps are presented in the final section of the
paper.
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