MEHE KODU ON MAAILM, NAISE MAAILM ON KODU? - Tartu Ãlikool
MEHE KODU ON MAAILM, NAISE MAAILM ON KODU? - Tartu Ãlikool
MEHE KODU ON MAAILM, NAISE MAAILM ON KODU? - Tartu Ãlikool
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<strong>NAISE</strong>D JA <strong>MEHE</strong>D HARIDUSELUS WOMEN AND MEN IN EDUCATI<strong>ON</strong><br />
Higher education<br />
A review of gender differences in the acquisition of higher education indicates that women are<br />
more prevalent than men among Estonian university students – roughly 60% of university<br />
students are women. The number of male and female students was relatively equal only 15 years<br />
ago. Social processes have made higher education fully accessible to women. There are also<br />
increased social expectations and pressures to acquire higher education, which was not so<br />
clearly visible earlier. This pressure also applies to men but, as lots of men exit the education<br />
path earlier and, it can be seen that they in general also discontinue their studies earlier, the<br />
number of male students in universities is lower than the number of female students. In<br />
percentage terms, we cannot complain about the share of men acquiring higher education in<br />
Estonia. A very large proportion of total Estonian population as well as of males has higher<br />
education. However, the centuries-old situation, where men’s level of education was generally<br />
higher than that of women, is now changing. We can expect that women in Estonia will be more<br />
educated than their husbands in the future.<br />
The share of women has been gradually increasing at all levels of higher education: Bachelor’s,<br />
Master’s and Doctoral studies. However, the percentage of women has decreased in professional<br />
higher education and integrated studies. These forms of education focus more on applied<br />
knowledge. Integrated study generally comprises engineering and medical studies. These fields<br />
of study tend to be of more interest for men. (Table 2)<br />
Figure 8 illustrating the share of men by fields of higher education indicates that there have been<br />
no major changes in the past 15 years. The share of men has decreased in most fields,<br />
corresponding to increased presence of women in higher education. The largest changes have<br />
been detected in the fields of services, health and well-being, social sciences, business and law.<br />
The decrease in the share of men has been the largest in these fields. Women have generally<br />
preferred to study ‘soft’ specialties. This is also confirmed by the data displayed in Table 2 which<br />
indicate that the change in the share of women in applied education curricula has been less<br />
significant than in Bachelor’s study. (Figure 8)<br />
Summary<br />
Currently, the number of women acquiring the highest level of education is larger than the<br />
respective number of men. Besides the fact that the share of males among the persons acquiring<br />
higher education decreased in the mid-1990s, caused by the addition of new study places, there<br />
have been no other major changes in the field of education. Although the educational gap is<br />
currently bigger than 15 years ago, it has stood relatively stable during the last 10 years. The<br />
lagging behind of men starts at the moment of transition from basic school to the gymnasium and<br />
continues at the transition to university education. While there is no difference in the number of<br />
young men and women at the transition from the gymnasium to the university, the difference is<br />
present at the transition from the basic school to the gymnasium. Evidently, gender gap is to a<br />
certain extent inevitable. In the European Union, about 55% of the persons acquiring higher<br />
education are women. In Estonia the respective share is 60%. The question is whether Estonia’s<br />
corresponding percentage 60% is the rightest one. In the future, it would be necessary to study<br />
why the proportion of boys in gymnasiums is by ten percentage points smaller, i.e. why they are<br />
unable to compete with girls for places in the gymnasium.<br />
110<br />
<strong>MEHE</strong> <strong>KODU</strong> <strong>ON</strong> <strong>MAAILM</strong>, <strong>NAISE</strong> <strong>MAAILM</strong> <strong>ON</strong> <strong>KODU</strong>? MAN’S HOME IS THE WORLD, WOMAN’S WORLD IS HER HOME?