Hidden Data Stories — Women’s quiet achievement on the education front
Analysis: Thong Yong Jun
As part of our efforts to promote everyday use of open data, we will publish one short data story biweekly based on seemingly inconspicuous datasets to uncover the hidden data stories on Data.gov.sg.
This week’s Hidden Data Story is on the topic of education. Among the numerous educational metrics that Ministry of Education (MOE) publishes on Data.gov.sg, many are datasets that span over 20–30 years, making them ideal for cross generational analysis. One such dataset is the Gender Parity Index For Primary, Secondary & Tertiary Students.
According to Wikipedia:
The Gender Parity Index (GPI) is a socioeconomic index usually designed to measure the relative access to education of males and females. In its simplest form, it is calculated as the quotient of the number of females by the number of males enrolled in a given stage of education (primary, secondary, etc.)
In short:
Gender Parity Index = Female Enrolment / Male Enrolment
From the chart below, the GPI for Primary, Secondary and Tertiary levels have all trended towards parity since 1990. This trend even predated the Compulsory Education Act that was enacted in 2000. By 2007, parity was achieved at all levels of education. Interestingly, GPI for tertiary education continued climbing up and as the latest figures provided by MOE in 2015 shows, women in tertiary education now outnumber men by a 10% margin.
The interesting fact about this trend is that it is not isolated to Singapore. The trend of women outnumbering men in tertiary education is observed in many parts of the world, and this is especially so in developed countries.
In 2012, UNESCO published the World Atlas of Gender Equality in Education, which included beautifully-crafted visualizations illustrating trends in women’s education. One of these charts are represented above. Here we can see a large number of developed countries (on the right) with GPIs over 1.0
What could be the reason for this shift in the education world? Is it due to changes in societal attitudes towards female education? Are boys just less academically inclined? Research seem to suggest that gender stereotypes, more than innate academic abilities, are the reasons why boys under invest in schoolwork during their early school years.
While celebrating our achievements in closing the education gender gap, should we be concerned about the growing gender imbalance in tertiary education? What are your thoughts on this? We welcome you to share in the comments below.
