Closing the gender gap in education: Challenges and solutions
There is a wide gender gap in some fields of education. It’s a thing that exists and we’ll do better if we acknowledge it and face it, trying to improve that issue, instead of turning a blind eye towards it.
So, why is it so that some genders are underrepresented in study programs? Why is there a wider gap between boys and girls as early as middle school or even primary school? What are the issues, challenges, and solutions to a problem that is bursting with tension and is causing many problems that need to be addressed?
Gender gaps in education
According to the OECD, there are the following gender gaps in schools:
- Boys lag behind girls at the end of compulsory education in reading skills by the equivalent, on average, of a year’s schooling
- Boys are far less likely to spend time reading for pleasure
- Boys perform better than girls in math
- Girls less likely to choose scientific and technological fields of study than boys
- Even when girls choose these subjects, they are less likely to take up careers in related fields
Research and statistics on women’s education show that in 2012, the number of young women entering university for the first time and choosing a STEM-related field was only 14 percent. On the other hand, the same statistic for young men is up to 39 percent.
Why is there a gap?
The gender difference in education is believed, by some, to be due to the differences between males and females, in general. Such proclaimers say that boys are more attuned to science and mathematics, whereas girls are less so.
This has been implemented into the minds of boys and girls from a very young age which then leads to young women being less likely to participate in college programs like that and, thus, furthering the gender inequality in education.
Furthermore, there is a widely accepted, although unspoken, truth that the world of science is a world of men, and women aren’t gladly welcomed in it. Men in STEM-related fields don’t gladly greet women entering their workplaces and tend to neglect their qualities, knowledge, and abilities. So, many women who’ve entered such programs have dropped out of them. Of those who graduated, some enter their field of choice and later quit their jobs due to the toxic work environment that exists.
Yes, if you’re looking for essay writer services, you’d be able to find hundreds of women who provide impeccable services like that and aid students on their way towards their end goal. But if you go into the field of physics, for instance, you’ll see that most employees there are men. Is that correct, or should we address this problem and how?
Female education – the path towards the future
If you browse online for essay writing services reviews, you’d see which services are the top choice for you and your current writing needs as a student, be it in school or in college. But if you search for ways to address the female education, the results won’t be so many. Why?
Because, for starters, we, as a society, need to change our minds and accept that girls can be just as good in math, engineering, technology, physics, etc., as boys, and sometimes even more. Why is that so hard to accept? Because of the so-long male dominance over those fields and, especially, because of the relative novelness of the female rights movement.
Back a hundred years ago, there weren’t as many working women as possible, let alone searching for careers in STEM-related fields. But there were some great ones, indeed. Marie-Curie, for instance, even died due to the groundbreaking discoveries she made.
Yet, such achievements often become obscured, and people frequently point out that men are better in science. We need to start addressing that by allowing girls to engage in more scientific activities and providing more scholarships giving them the chance to participate in scientific programs and courses in high school and college.
Furthermore, we need to address the toxic work environment. This can be done through slow but steady educational programs, exchange opportunities, and making sure there are more women in the workplace. Through that, men will start to see that women are good, reliable, qualified, and respectable scientists and technologists, engineers, construction specialists, etc.
Of course, stepping on the path towards gender equality in education is not an easy task to follow through. It is mined with a lot of obstacles, one of them being the status quo, which mandates the current educational and professional environment.
There can also be educational programs, shows, advertisements, documentaries, and other materials that point out the contribution of women to history, to STEM-related achievements, and to the latest developments in them. For instance, the first person to see a black hole ever was a woman. So, this is something worth noting and worth trying to implement in future strategies.
Sure, there might be some tension in the scientific-related fields with the introduction of novelties, such as having an once male-dominated environment be more gender equal. But such is the path towards success and, like the gender rights movement has long understood, all changes are met with distrust in their early stages. Yet, there are possibilities to improve the gender inequality in education through the methods pointed out above or others and this can certainly introduce a much more efficient workplace environment that is leading the world towards future achievements and progress.
The future can be brighter
Yes, there is much more to be said on this topic. Yet, time is tight, and patience isn’t unlimited. Thus, we’d leave you here with those points to consider. We hope that we helped show some of the main differences between genders in education and how they are still leaving the gender gap wide open.
We tried to give some advice for solutions to those problems and, of course, they aren’t all that can be thought of or considered. These are just some of the main points to make on this issue that can aid in overcoming the gap and finally bringing the world to an equal stand.
Sure, many more inequalities are left untreated and unaddressed and those shall need work, too. But the future can be much better and brighter if we try to give equal rights to men and women regarding their education, professional path, career, and development as people and professionals, rather than just mothers and wives. The path is long, and struggles await, but the issue can be overcome if we make the steps towards this.
