Educational inequality across and within genders : a global perspective

Abstract

Population Association of America (PAA). 2017 Annual Meeting, Chicago, 27-29 Abril

Over the last few years, two important phenomena have attracted the attention of social scientists: (i) the uneven global distribution of educational attainment, and (ii) the closing and reversal of the gender gap in educational attainment in favor of women. While it seems clear that these two phenomena are interrelated with one another, no previous study has attempted to investigate and flesh out the nature of that relationship. The main aim of this paper is to bridge this gap by putting together the different types of inequalities into a coherent whole. Our findings suggest that (a) overall educational inequality, as well as inequality among women, have risen together with increasing gender equality, but a decline in both types of inequality can be observed at higher levels of gender equality; and (b) the educational advantage of women over men is gradually becoming an important source contributing to global educational inequality.