3 weeks ago
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New research showing that boys in English schools outperformed girls in maths and science tests offers a corrective to a narrative emphasising the extent to which boys have fallen behind in their learning. The analysis, from the UCL Institute of Education, found that the gender gap in England was the widest in any of the 72 countries where it was measured. Boys in year 9 (age 13-14) overturned a lead by girls in 2019, outperforming them in science tests for the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study. One of the authors, Dr Jennie Golding, pointed to boys’ greater confidence in maths as a possible explanation.
Recent challenges to the idea that girls are in the ascendant have tended to be based on a longer view and a wider range of information. Men, after all, still earn more than women. Earlier this month, a Women in Work index pointed to the “sluggish” pace of change on the gender pay gap, with the UK slipping behind other countries. Pay and progression in many female-dominated sectors, including early years and social care, remains poor.
While the earnings of younger women may have matched or even overtaken those of male peers, the “motherhood penalty”, which sees women’s incomes shrink more than men’s when they become parents, is worsening. Analysis last year showed that mothers earned on average 24% less an hour than fathers in 2023. The pensions gap also places women at a significant disadvantage, making them more likely to experience poverty in old age.
Gender is not the greatest determinant of academic success. In relation to school test results across the age range, the biggest attainment gaps are not between the sexes but between socioeconomically advantaged and disadvantaged groups – particularly those with special educational needs and disabilities, and those from some ethnic groups. Some experts believe that smaller differences between the results of boys and girls can function as a distraction.
But it ought to be possible to find a balance between overemphasising concerns about boys’ declining academic performance and participation, and dismissing them as scaremongering. Boys are more than twice as likely to be excluded from school as girls. In 2022-23, three UK women enrolled at university for every two men (with 1.28 million female and 880,000 male students). This is a huge disparity in outcomes from schooling, and while it is true that, based on current data, any female advantage looks likely to be reversed in adulthood, the future is unpredictable.
Female students now outnumber male ones in medicine and law as well as arts subjects – while the reverse is true in physics, maths, engineering and computing. Persistent stereotyping is one explanation, a view supported by research into parental attitudes and girls’ lack of confidence in these areas. More research is needed, but given the importance of the male-dominated digital technology sector in all our lives, and rising concerns about online harms, it makes sense to advocate strongly for girls’ access and opportunities to relevant qualifications.
Simultaneously, evidence that fewer boys are school-ready aged four, as well as their lower levels of participation in higher education – which some experts think is linked to tuition fees and differing attitudes to debt – must also be taken seriously. The contrasting as well as shared difficulties of boys and girls are worthy of attention.
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