What Lies Behind Gender Inequality in Education?

                      While PISA reveals large gender differences in reading, in favour of 15-year-old girls, the gap isnarrower when digital reading skills are tested. Indeed, the Survey of Adult Skills suggests thatthere are no significant gender differences in digital literacy proficiency among 16-29 year-olds.              Boys are more likely to underachieve when they attend schools with a large proportion ofsocio‑economically disadvantaged students.              Girls – even high-achieving girls – tend to underachieve compared to boys when they are askedto think like scientists, such as when they are asked to formulate situations mathematically orinterpret phenomena scientifically.              Parents are more likely to expect their sons, rather than their daughters, to work in a science,technology, engineering or mathematics field – even when their 15-year-old boys and girlsperform at the same level in mathematics.                