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Gender Differences in Educational Attainment: The Case of University Students in England and Wales
Author(s) -
McNabb Robert,
Pal Sarmistha,
Sloane Peter
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
economica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.532
H-Index - 65
eISSN - 1468-0335
pISSN - 0013-0427
DOI - 10.1111/1468-0335.00295
Subject(s) - affect (linguistics) , educational attainment , psychology , class (philosophy) , demographic economics , academic achievement , subject (documents) , social psychology , developmental psychology , demography , sociology , political science , economics , law , communication , artificial intelligence , library science , computer science
This paper examines the determinants of gender differences in educational attainment using data for all university graduates. We find that, although women students perform better on average than their male counterparts, they are significantly less likely to obtain a first class degree. There is no evidence that this is because of differences in the types of subject male and female students study or in the institutions they attend, nor does it reflect differences in personal attributes, such as academic ability. Rather, it is differences in the way these factors affect academic achievement that give rise to gender differences in performance.