The document, which includes the main educational indicators in gender, shows that girls obtain in greater proportion than boys the titles of ESO and Baccalaureate. The data also confirm the differences when choosing studies, with a low female presence in the scientific-technological areas.
"One of the main challenges we have in our country is to guarantee equal opportunities in education and make the educational system develop equally the talent of girls and boys, without limitations or conditions. For this, a true political commitment is necessary and social for gender equity in education, "said Minister of Education and Vocational Training, Isabel Celaá, in the prologue of the report.
Equality in figures MEFP is one of the instruments that facilitates decision making to achieve equality in education, since it shows an x-ray of our system with those aspects in which progress has been made and those in which there are still significant differences.
Among the former are, for example, university enrollment rates, where women account for 55.2% of students; the lowest educational abandonment among girls between 18 and 24 years old (13% compared to 21.4% of boys of that same age); or the percentage of women aged 25 to 34 with higher education, which is 11.8 points higher than that of men (52.4% versus 40.6%).
On the opposite side, those aspects in which there is ample room for improvement, is the distribution in the different areas of knowledge. The gender gap is already manifested in the baccalaureate of Sciences, where girls represent 47% of the students. In Vocational Training the female presence is lower at all levels (basic, medium and higher) and is especially low in branches such as Maintenance of self-propelled vehicles (3.2%), Electricity and Electronics (4.8%) or Mechanical Manufacturing (9.4%). However, they are the majority in Personal Image (94.1%), Sociocultural and Community Services (87.1%) or Health (75%).
In university degrees and masters the situation is similar, with few girls pursuing careers related to engineering, industry and construction (28.5%) or in Computer Science (12.9%), and many in Education (77.7%) or Health and Social Services (71.4%).
However, the feminization of studies in general contrasts with the masculinization of the labor market, where women have worse employability rates at all levels of training between 25 and 64, according to 2019 data. Female unemployment rates They are superior for all educational levels and all ages. If they are restricted to the group of women between 25 and 34 years old – where 52.4% have higher education (11.8 points more than men of that age) -, the figures do not improve, with 2.6 points more unemployment In total, 10 points more among those without compulsory studies and almost two more among those with higher education.
As for the teaching profession, it is a clearly feminized career (66.6% of the total), especially in the early stages of education, where women represent 97.7% in children in the 2017-2018 academic year . In the university, female teachers represent 41.8%, a percentage that increases to 51.9% among those under 40.
"The contribution of education to the achievement of equal opportunities between women and men is undeniable, both so that anyone can achieve the maximum training that their own capacity allows, regardless of their sex, as to sensitize and educate against gender violence and respect based on equal treatment and opportunities, "said the minister during the classrooms for equality event in which this report has been presented.
