Gender, education and work: The weaker sex

Boys are being outclassed by girls at both school and university, and the gap is widening

在高中和大学阶段，男孩正被女孩超越，且差距正逐步拉大。

“IT’S all to do with their brains and bodies and chemicals,” says Sir Anthony Seldon, the master of Wellington College, a**posh**English**boarding school**. “There’s a**mentality**that it’s not cool for them to perform, that it’s not cool to be smart,” suggests Ivan Yip, principal of the Bronx Leadership Academy in New York. One school charges £25,000 ($38,000) a year and has a**scuba-diving**club; the other serves subsidised lunches to most of its pupils, a quarter of whom have**special needs**. Yet both**are grappling with**the same problem: teenage boys are being left behind by girls.

一所高档英语寄宿学校的校长Anthony Seldon称“这完全取决于他们的大脑、身体和荷尔蒙”。纽约Bronx Leadership Academy院长Ivan Yip称“他们普遍认为努力是不酷的，聪明是不酷的”。前者收费3.8万美元一年并设有潜水俱乐部；而另一个为其大多数学生提供午餐补贴，1/4的学生有特殊教学需求。然而，它们都同样致力于解决相同问题：青少年男孩远远落后于女孩。

It is a problem that would have been unimaginable a few decades ago. Until the 1960s boys spent longer and went further in school than girls, and were more likely to graduate from university. Now, across the rich world and in a growing number of poor countries, the balance has**tilted**the other way. Policymakers who once fretted about girls’ lack of confidence in science now spend their time dangling copies of “Harry Potter” before surly boys. Sweden has commissioned research into its “boy crisis”. Australia has devised a reading programme called “Boys, Blokes, Books & Bytes”. In just a couple of generations, one gender gap has closed, only for another to open up.

这是一个十几年前无法想象的问题。直到19世纪70年代之前，男孩比女孩花费更长时间并获得更高教育，且更有可能从大学毕业。现在，无论是富裕世界还是越来越多的贫穷国家，平衡向另一方倾斜。曾经担忧女孩缺乏科学信心的政策制定者们，现在更多时间在粗鲁男孩面前晃动《哈利波特》。瑞士政府已委托了一项关于“男孩危机”的研究。澳大利亚开展了一项”男孩，男人，书和比特”的项目。仅仅几代时间内，前一个性别差异消失，而后一种性别差异又出现。

The**reversal**is laid out in a report published on March 5th by the OECD, a Paris-based rich-country think-tank. Boys’ dominance just about endures in maths: at age 15 they are, on average, the equivalent of three months’ schooling ahead of girls. In science the results are fairly even. But in reading, where girls have been ahead for some time, a gulf has appeared. In all 64 countries and economies in the study, girls outperform boys. The average gap is equivalent to an**extra**year of schooling.

以巴黎为基地的富裕世界智库OECD于三月5号公布了一份报道中展示了这种反转。男生在数学领域的主导地位差不多会持续。在平均年龄15岁时，男孩超过同年龄女孩三个月。在自然科学领域，男女学生表现相当。但是，在阅读领域，女孩一直保持领先地位，且差距变得更大。在这项研究所涉及的64个国家和经济体中，女孩比男孩表现突出。女孩平均比男孩超前一个学年。

The OECD**deems**literacy**to be the most**important skill that it assesses, since further learning depends on it. Sure enough, teenage boys are 50% more likely than girls to fail to achieve basic proficiency in any of maths, reading and science (see chart 1). Youngsters in this group, with nothing to**build on**or**shine at**, are prone to drop out of school altogether.

因进一步学习需要依靠读写能力，OECD将它作为评估中最重要的技能。果真如此，在实现数学、阅读和自然科学的基础能力时，年轻男孩比女孩多出50%的失败可能。在这个群体的年轻人，因无所依靠和无所出众，而更有可能从学校辍学。

To see why boys and girls fare so differently in the classroom, first**look at**what they do outside it. The average 15-year-old girl devotes five-and-a-half hours a week to homework, an hour more than the average boy, who spends more time playing video games and**trawling the internet**. Three-quarters of girls read for pleasure, compared with little more than half of boys. Reading rates are falling everywhere as screens draw eyes from pages, but boys are giving up faster. The OECD found that, among boys who do as much homework as the average girl, the gender gap in reading fell by nearly a quarter.

要明白为何男生和女生在课堂内表现出如此差异，先从课堂之外活动着手。一般15岁女孩每周花费5.5小时去做家庭作业，比平均男孩多一个小时，他们花费更多时间玩电子游戏和上网。3/4的女生将阅读作为消遣，而仅有一半多点的男生这么做。随着屏幕渐渐把目光从书本挪开，世界上所有地方的阅读率正逐步下降，而男生下降速度更快。OECD发现，在那些和一般女生工作相似的男生中，在阅读方面的性别差距缩小了1/4左右。

Once in the classroom, boys**long to**be out of it. They are twice as likely as girls to report that school is a “waste of time”, and more often turn up late. Just as teachers used to struggle to persuade girls that science is not only for men, the OECD now urges parents and policymakers to steer boys away from a version of**masculinity**that ignores academic achievement. “There are different pressures on boys,” says Mr Yip. “Unfortunately there’s a tendency where they try to**live up to**certain expectations in terms of [bad] behavior.”

一上课，男生就渴望快点结束。在报告中，多于女生2倍的男生认为上课是浪费时间，而且更经常迟到。如同过去教师努力说服女生自然科学并不只是男性领域，OECD如今建议父母和政策制定者引导男生远离将忽视学术成就作为男子气概表现的这种想法。Yip校长说：“男孩面临着各种各样的压力。但不幸的是，他们试图在坏行为上不辜负被人期望。

Boys’**disdain**for school might have been less irrational when there were plenty of jobs for uneducated men. But those days**have long gone**. It may be that a bit of swagger helps in maths, where confidence plays a part in boys’ lead (though it sometimes extends to**delusion**: 12% of boys told the OECD that they were familiar with the mathematical concept of “subjunctive scaling”, a red herring that fooled only 7% of girls). But their lack of self-discipline drives teachers crazy.

当曾经有许多工作可供未受教育男性选择时，男孩鄙视学校还显得没那么非理性。但是那些日子早已一去不复返。也许一些自大有助于男生学习数学，自信促使男生领先（但有时则成为一种幻觉：12%的男孩告诉OECD他们熟知”虚拟缩放“这一概念，而这一假概念则只蒙骗到7%的女孩）。但他们缺乏自律让教师很头疼。

Perhaps because they can be so insufferable, teenage boys are often marked down. The OECD found that boys did much better in its anonymized tests than in teacher assessments. The gap with girls in reading was a third smaller, and the gap in maths—where boys were already ahead—opened up further. In another finding that suggests a lack of even-handedness among teachers, boys are more likely than girls to be forced to repeat a year, even when they are of equal ability.

也许因为他们如此让人难以忍受，青少年男孩通常给予较低分数。OECD发现，男孩在匿名测试中的表现好于教师评估。在阅读方面的性别差距缩小了1/3；而在数学方面，已领先的男生将差距拉大。另一研究显示，因教师缺乏公平，即使能力相当。男生也比女生更有可能被要求复读一年，

What is behind this discrimination? One possibility is that teachers mark up students who are**polite, eager and stay out of fights**, all**attributes**that are more common among girls. In some countries, academic points can even be**dock**ed for bad behaviour. Another is that women, who make up eight out of ten primary-school teachers and nearly seven in ten lower-secondary teachers, favour their own sex, just as male bosses have been shown to favour male underlings. In a few places sexism is**enshrined**in law: Singapore still**canes**boys, while**sparing**girls the rod.是什么

造成这种差异对待？一种可能的解释是教师给予那些礼貌、热心和远离争斗的学生更高分数，而这些特征在女孩中更为常见。在一些国家，甚至会因不良行为而扣掉学业分数。另一种可能是，女性，构成了80%的小学教师的和接近70%的初中教师，更偏爱她们自己的性别，如同男性上级偏爱男性下属一般。在一些地方在法律中也有性别主义：新加坡依旧允许鞭刑男性，而女性则免于该刑法。

Some countries provide an environment in which boys can do better. In Latin America the gender gap in reading is relatively small, with boys in**Chile**,**Colombia**,**Mexico**and**Peru**trailing girls less than they do elsewhere. Awkwardly, however, this nearly always**comes with**a wider gender gap in maths,**in favour of**boys. The reverse is true, too: Iceland, Norway and Sweden, which have got girls up to parity with boys in maths, struggle with uncomfortably wide gender gaps in reading. Since 2003, the last occasion when the OECD did a big study, boys in a few countries have caught up in reading and girls in several others have significantly narrowed the gap in maths. No country has managed both.

在有些国家为男孩表现优异提供了环境。在拉丁美洲，阅读方面的性别差异相对较小。如智利、哥伦比亚、墨西哥和秘鲁的男生落后于女生小于其他地方。然而，令人困惑的是，这总伴随着男性在数学方面领先于女性的差距加大。反过来也成立。女孩与男孩在数学方面表现相当的冰岛、挪威和瑞士，挣扎于令人不悦的逐步加宽的阅读方面性别差异。自2003年OECD最后一次就此展开的大规模调查显示，少数国家男生在阅读方面赶上了女生，而在另一些国家女性成功缩小了数学方面的差异。但没有国家成功达成两者。

Girls’ educational dominance**persists**after school. Until a few decades ago men were in a clear majority at university almost everywhere (see chart 2), particularly in advanced courses and in science and engineering. But as higher education has boomed worldwide, women’s enrolment has increased almost twice as fast as men’s. In the OECD women now make up 56% of students enrolled, up from 46% in 1985. By 2025 that may rise to 58%.

中等教育之后，女性的领先地位继续保持。直至最近数十年，男性几乎占据大学的主流人群，特别是科学与工程领域的高阶课程。然而，随着高等教育在世界范围的蓬勃发展，女性入学增长率几乎两倍于男性。在OECD报告显示，女性注册率由1985年的46%上升至56%，到2025年也许上升至58%。

Even in the handful of OECD countries where women are in the minority on campus, their numbers**are creeping up**. Meanwhile several, including America, Britain and parts of Scandinavia, have 50% more women than men on campus. Numbers in many of America’s elite private colleges are more evenly balanced. It is widely believed that their opaque admissions criteria are relaxed for men.

即便在少数女性是少数人全的OECD国家，女性数量也再逐步攀升。与此同时，一些包括美国、英国和欧洲国家，女性比男性人数多于50%。在许多美国精英私立学院中，性别比例更加平衡。许多人认为这些学院的不透明招生标准更加偏爱男性。

The feminisation of higher education was so gradual that for a long time it passed unremarked. According to Stephan Vincent-Lancrin of the OECD, when in 2008 it published a report pointing out just how far it had gone, people “couldn’t believe it”.

高等教育的女性化进程如此缓慢，以至于在很长时间内未被人察觉。据OECD的Stephan Vincent-Lancrin称，当2008年一份相关报告刊出时，人们“不相信这结果”。

Women who go to university are more likely than their male peers to graduate, and typically get better grades. But men and women tend to study different subjects, with many women choosing courses in education, health, arts and the humanities, whereas men take up computing, engineering and the**exact sciences**. In mathematics women are**drawing level**; in the life sciences, social sciences, business and law they have moved ahead.

进入大学的女性，相对于她们的男性同僚，更有可能毕业，且获得更好地成绩。但是，男性和女性所选科目的倾向不同。更多地女性选择教育、健康、艺术和人文学科，而男性更多选择计算机、工程和精密科学等课程。在数学方面，女性正扳平，而在科学、社会科学、商业和法律方面，她们处于领先地位。

Social change has done more to encourage women to enter higher education than any deliberate policy.**The Pill**and a decline in the average number of children, together with later marriage and childbearing, have made it easier for married women to join the workforce. As more women went out to work, discrimination became less**sharp**. Girls saw the point of study once they were expected to have careers. Rising divorce rates underlined the importance of being able to provide for yourself. These days girls nearly everywhere seem more ambitious than boys, both academically and in their careers. It is hard to believe that in 1900-50 about half of jobs in America were barred to married women.

相对于任何蓄意的政策，社会变革更有益于鼓励女性进入高等教育。口服避孕药和平均育儿数量的下降，以及晚婚和晚育等，为已婚女性寻找工作提供了便利。随着更多女性进入工作环境，歧视变得没那么显著。一旦女性被期待拥有职业发展时，女孩就意识到学习的重要性。上升的离婚率使得女性意识到自我供养的重要性。如今，无论是学业上还是职场上，世界各地的女孩比男孩表现出更大雄心。难以想象，在19世界上半叶，几乎大半美国工作禁止已婚女性从事。

So are women now on their way to becoming the dominant sex? Hanna Rosin’s book, “The End of Men and the Rise of Women”, published in 2012, argues that in America, at least, women are ahead not only**educationally**but increasingly also**professionally**and**socially**. Policymakers in many countries worry about the**prospect**of a growing**underclass**of**ill-educated men**. That should worry women, too: in the past they have typically married men in their own social group or above. If there are too few of those, many women will have**to marry down**or not at all.

那么，女性是否逐渐成为主导性别？出版于2012年的Ranna Rosin的《The End of Men and the Rise of Women》中指出，至少在美国，女性不仅仅教育上领先，还在职业上和社会上领先。许多国家的政策制定者担忧数量逐步攀升的下层阶级的教育程度较低的男性的未来前景。女性也应该担忧这点。在过去，女性通常与同阶层或高于自身阶层的男性结婚。如果这种男性较少，大多数女性只能寻找下阶层男性或选择不结婚。

According to the OECD, the return on investment in a degree is higher for women than for men in many countries, though not all. In America PayScale, a company that**crunches**incomes data, found that the return on investment in a college degree for women was lower than or at best the same as for men. Although women as a group are now better qualified, they earn about three-quarters as much as men. A big reason is the choice of subject: education, the humanities and social work pay less than engineering or computer science. But academic research shows that women attach less importance than men to the graduate pay premium, suggesting that a high financial return is not the main reason for their further education.

据OECD显示，虽不是全部，但是在很多国家，高等教育投入对女性的回报高于男性。一家收集收入数据的公司America PayScale发现，女性对于大学学历的投资回报率相对于男性而言，较低或（在最好状况下）相似。虽然女性整体表现更加，但她们工资水平仅为男性的3/4。主要原因在于相对于工程或计算机科学等，女性选择教育、人文和社会科学这类薪酬较低科目。然而，学术研究显示相对于男性，女性更少的关注薪酬，显示了寻求高回报并非女性追求高等教育的首要原因。

At the highest levels of business and the professions, women remain notably scarce. In a reversal of the pattern at school, the anonymous and therefore gender-blind essays and exams at university protect female students from bias. But in the workplace, says Elisabeth Kelan of Britain’s Cranfield School of Management, “traditional patterns assert themselves in miraculous ways”. Men and women join the medical and legal professions in roughly equal numbers, but 10-15 years later many women have chosen unambitious career paths or dropped out to spend time with their children. Meanwhile men**are rising through the ranks**as qualifications gained long ago fade in importance and personality, ambition and experience come to matter more.

在最高层级的商业和专业领域，女性仍旧较少。女性在学校所展现优势被逆转。在学校，论文及考试评价是匿名的，性别因素被避免，而保护女性不受性别歧视的影响。然而，来自于英国克兰菲尔德管理学院的Elisabeth Kelan称，在工作场所传统模式再次证明自己。同等数量的男性和女性加入医学院和法律学院，然而，10-15年之后，许多女性选择了更为平淡的职业路径或花费更多时间陪孩子。与此同时，随着之前习得的经验的重要性逐渐消失而个性、雄心和经验成为更为重要的影响因素，男性在职业层级上逐步攀升。

For a long time it was said that since women had historically been**underrepresented**in university and work, it would take time to fill the pipeline from which senior appointments were made. But after 40 years of making up the majority of graduates in some countries,**that argument is wearing thin**. According to Claudia Goldin, an economics professor at Harvard, the “last chapter” in the story of women’s rise—equal pay and access to the best jobs—will not come without big structural changes.

很长一段时间以来，流传着一种说法：因历史范围来看，无论是大学还是职场，女性所占比例不足，因此需要时间去建立通往高层职位的渠道。但是40年以来，一些国家毕业生人数中女性成为主流，这项论证越来越站不住脚。据哈佛大学经济学教授Claudia Goldin称，女性崛起的最终环节--平等的薪酬和最佳职业可能--若不进行大幅结构调整是不会到来。

In a recent paper in the American Economic Review Ms Goldin found that the difference between the hourly earnings of highly qualified men and their female peers grows hugely in the first 10-15 years of working life, largely because of a big**premium**in some highly paid jobs on putting in long days and being constantly on call. On the whole men find it easier than women to work in this way. Where such jobs are common, for example in business and the law, the gender pay gap remains wide and even**short spells**out of the workforce are severely penalised, meaning that**motherhood**can**exact**a heavy price. Where pay is roughly proportional to hours worked, as in pharmacy, it is low.

在AER的最新文献中，Goldin女士发现高素质劳动力中，在工作生活的10到15年间，男性小时薪金与女性差距巨大，首要原因在于高收入工作的大幅奖金取决于长时间工作和随时应答电话为前提。整体而言，男性相对于女性更善于如此工作。在这种工作方式普遍的领域，如商业和法律，性别薪酬差异依旧很大。并且，甚至短期离开工作环境也可能招致严重惩罚，意味着母亲需要付出较大代价。而当工作薪酬主要依靠工作时长时，如同配药房，性别薪酬差异较小。

There will always be jobs where flexibility is not an option, says Ms Goldin: those of CEOs, trial lawyers, surgeons, some bankers and senior politicians come to mind. In many others, pay does not need to depend on being**available all hours**—and well-educated men who want a life outside work would benefit from change, too. But the new gender gap is at the other end of the pay spectrum. And it is not women who are suffering, but unskilled men.

Goldin女士称：有些工作是难以实现灵活性的，如同那些CEOs、庭审律师、外科医生、银行家和一些资深政客们。而另外其他工作，薪酬并非取决于随时待命。同时，受过良好教育且想要脱离工作的男性也会从中受益。但是，新的性别差异位于薪酬范围的另一端。受苦的并非女性，而是无技能的男性。