UNESCO - EFA Global Monitoring Report

Box 2.6. Gender and vocational/technical studies in France



In France, despite increases of the female presence in most fields, there remains a traditional differentiation between ‘masculine’ and ‘feminine fields of study. In 2001 overall disparities were in favour of young women in upper secondary education, where women represented close to 54% of total enrolment. More disaggregated figures however show that their share was 58% in general education, 65% in scientific and technological education and 43% in the professional baccalaureate. These figures conceal great inequalities as regards programme orientation.		More detailed data on programme orientation are available for graduates. As the table shows, in the professional baccalaureate, the female share is only 10.2% in production programmes, compared with 70.1% in service programmes (with close to 100% in health-related and secretarial courses). Even in general secondary education, girls are over represented among humanities graduates 83%) and slightly under-represented in science programmes (44.5%). The proportion of girls is lowest in courses associated with higher labour market rewards: the scientific and technological baccalaureate, and in those with an industrial orientation (7.9%), whereas the medically and socially oriented studies are highly feminized at 96% of graduates. It should be mentioned that the proportion of girls is relatively higher among graduates than among enrollees because girls perform better than boys in all types of secondary examinations. The French gender pattern of subject selection described above is found, in broad terms, in many other Western European countries.

box2.6_gender & vocational.pdf

Source: Ministere Francais de l’Education Nationale (2002).

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