The report Gender gaps: from school to the labor market, which we prepared together with Argentinos por la Educación, examines the disparities between men and women, first in various stages of the educational system and then in the labor market.
We found that from primary school
there are differentials in learning that increase in secondary school
: women do better in language and men in mathematics.
Many will say:
“we already knew that…”,
and that is the point, that we naturalized it.
In reality, there are no basic cognitive differences that justify this.
Furthermore, we saw that it is a regularity that is consolidated throughout the country, in some provinces more than in others, but in all of them these differentials are explicit.
This fact later translates into more men finishing compulsory education in a timely manner.
At the country level, of every 100 men who start 1st grade, 14 reach the end of secondary school without repeating and with the expected knowledge in language and mathematics, while of every 100 women, 12 do so, precisely "because men "he does better in mathematics."
However, women persist more in their education: 79% of women between 25 and 29 years old have completed secondary school or more, compared to 68% of men.
That is, women study more.
When analyzing higher education, it is observed that, in general, the disciplines have a predominance of women, the exception is engineering and those linked to industry.
This phenomenon is reflected as a clear inclination of women towards professions in social and humanistic areas, to the detriment of the so-called hard sciences.
The question is how much this will have to do with that first difference that we see in mathematics and language performance, how much is a genuine preference and how much can be driven by motivational issues, role stereotypes, unconscious biases transmitted in the environment, in families or at school.
Once in the labor market, although female participation has increased over the years, and the educational capital of women is on average higher than that of men, a significant wage gap is observed.
When formal salaries of professionals graduated in the same disciplines and with similar years of experience are compared, women receive on average salaries between 7% and 20% lower depending on the discipline.
Only in 2 of 15 disciplines analyzed is this reversed.
The evidence presented in the report indicates that there are gender disparities that are expressed in different ways and at different stages of a person's development.
Most biases and stereotypes have cultural and social origins that modify our actions unconsciously, hence the importance of recognizing them.
Thinking about public policies that help correct them would bring about improvements not only in matters of equity but also in efficiency in the use of human resources and in the development of the country.