Question

4. Describe the trends over time in (a) educational attainment by gender; and (b) percentage of graduates in selected professional degree programs that are female. Then provide reasons for the particular significance of the 1970s in these trends. 5. Describe the trend since 1974 in the college wage premium and the gender difference in this trend.

Answer 1

4. The below chart shows the evolution of female-to-male ratios of educational attainment (mean years of schooling) across different world regions.

The estimates in the visualization below correspond to regional averages of total year of schooling for females (15-64 years of age), divided by the corresponding regional averages for males (15-64 years of age). Regional averages are population-weighted.

Gender ratios for mean years of schooling Our World in Data Female-to-male ratio of average years of schooling, expressed in percents. All education levels for population aged 15-64. Regional estimates are population-weighted averages. Eastern Europe Latin America and the Caribbean Advanced Economies 100% -Middle East and North Africa Asia and the Pacific Sub-Saharan Africa 80% 1910 60% Advanced 84.39% Economies Latin America and the Caribbean 78.59% ● Eastern Europe 67.64% Middle East and North Africa 37.68% 40% Sub-Saharan Africa 24.14% 16.96% Asia and the Pacific 20% 090 1870 1900 1940 1960 1980 2010 1920 Source: Lee and Lee (2016) # CC BY

b) Women contribute 56% of the graduates in professional graduate courses.

It was in the 1970s, women in the advanced economies had only 0.75 years for every year of education that men had. And in other regions it was even much unequal than that, in Sub-Sahran Africa women had only 0.08 years of education for every year of education that men received.

Since then there has generally been a strong upward trend in the gender ratios across all world regions, which indicates that the inequality between men and women in access to education has been declining. In fact, Latin America and Eastern Europe caught up with the group of 'advanced economies' in the 1980s.