Education has significant effects on men’s and women’s position in the labour market, wages and other areas of life. Finland’s key gender equality policy goal has long been the reduction of gender segregation in matters such as educational choices.

Research has shown that even though education is considered gender-neutral, its practices impose different demands and expectations on boys and girls, coupled with different assumptions about genders – often unwittingly or unconsciously.

Segregation in education

In Finnish schools, gender segregation largely consists of differentiation and imbalance between the genders, which is manifested in matters such as study subject choices, practical teaching, learning results, student evaluation, and the composition of the school and teaching staff. Moreover, schools’ practical operations and operating environments still comprise practices and cultures based on gender-based division of duties.

Traditional notions of men’s and women’s jobs restrict educational and professional choices. At the end of comprehensive school, boys are particularly liable to think that gender affects their future professional choices. Gender-based differentiation can already be seen in study subject choices in comprehensive school, and it continues throughout the upper secondary level all the way to the level of higher education.

In basic education, girls study more languages, while boys study more natural sciences and mathematics. Men also study more mathematics, physics and chemistry than women in upper secondary school. The variations between men and women by educational sector are significant in secondary level vocational education. Women tend to dominate the social welfare and healthcare sectors, while men dominate in the transportation and technical fields. Similar disparities in these fields can be found in universities of applied sciences. The fastest reduction of gender segregation has been witnessed in universities.

PISA studies

In Finnish society, the gap between male and female success in comprehensive schools has been a topic of discussion for decades. PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) is a joint research programme of the OECD member states that assesses the proficiency of 15-year-old students in mathematics, natural sciences and reading at three-year intervals.

In Finland, boys have traditionally fared better than girls in mathematics tests. Boys’ mathematical self-concept (concept of their skills) has also been better than girls’ self-concept. The latest PISA results from 2015 show that, for the first time, the gender difference in mathematical skills significantly favours girls.

With regard to literacy, the difference in favour of girls was the largest in the OECD countries. Girls have consistently outperformed boys in terms of literacy, but this gap has slightly narrowed. Girls and boys have long been performing equally well in natural sciences. According to the latest PISA results the gender difference in natural sciences favours girls and is the largest in the OECD countries. A drop has been seen in both girls’ and boys’ proficiency in natural sciences since 2006.

However, it is important to note that the majority of girls and boys fare equally well in Finnish schools.