Gender Differences In Education In Australia Essay

From 1999 to 2014, the number of females entered university increased sharply, whereas male graduates concluded to 51% in higher education (Martin 2015). Females tent to be housewives and took care of children, while males were responsible for earned money. However, in this century, females outnumber males in higher education. Both the UK and Australia has seen a sharp increase in the gender gap for different reasons. It reveals a few similarities and one different.

One Similarity of male dominated in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) courses in both countries. In the UK, just like Australia, STEM fields are overwhelming to male. In contrast, female tend to choose “soft” subjects, like arts or education and humanities. Regarding to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development or OECD, in 2005, stated that female indicated in 76% of all degrees in higher education and 66% of all degrees in the Arts and Humanities in the UK. However, at the same time, women attended 40% of science degrees and 26% of engineering (Smallwood 2012). Likewise, a report from the University of Melbourne in Australia indicated that only 25% of women graduates in these STEM fields (Barden 2016). The reason is

According to A Commonwealth of Australia, in 2002, women comprised 16% of all academic staff and 36% of non-academic staff and men ranked 26% of all academic staff and 22% of non-academic staff (Carrington and Pratt 2003). However, the proportion of male to female academic staff, figures from the European Commission in 2009 showed that only 17% of women in academic staff in the UK (Cited in Smallwood 2012). One possible reason assumed that in the higher positions, gender gap for women’s earnings much lower than men. Therefore, it’s clear that both countries have a gender imbalance against female in academic staff