University, careers and leadership · ICGS Research Library

Title

University, careers and leadership

Author

ICGS

Year Published

2024

Description

Research shows that girls who attend single-sex schools are more likely to achieve their personal best at school, be confident of their academic ability, and aspire to graduate and postgraduate study -- all of which are highly advantageous in the development of their careers and in achieving their leadership potential. Alumnae of girls' schools are also more likely to enter male-dominated careers, which is advantageous for their future earning potential.

• A detailed analysis of the exam results of over 4,700 female students in Poland has found that girls from single-sex schools scored higher than girls from closely matched co-ed schools on a national high-stakes science exam, indicating that “attending an all-girls school might significantly affect future educational, career and job opportunities of young women” (Koniewski & Hawrot, 2021, p. 1).

• Mission Australia's Youth Survey 2020 of young people aged 15-19 revealed that students at girls’ schools obtained higher scores than the female average in educational and career aspirations. Despite the pandemic, a higher proportion of girls' school students intended to obtain a university degree (88.1%) compared with 69.9% of all females aged 15-19. In addition, 56.7% of girls attending single-sex schools reported feeling positive or very positive about their future compared with 52.6% of all females (Mission Australia, 2020).

• A 2019 study by Dr Phillippa Carnemolla of the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) found that 55% of girls enrolling in the Bachelor of Construction Project Management degree at UTS from 2010-2018 had attended an all-girls schools, despite girls’ schools only comprising 9% of schools in New South Wales (p. 29).

• Similarly, in New Zealand, where 13% of students (male and female) attend single-sex schools, a study found that girls enrolling in engineering at Canterbury University between 2005 and 2017 were more likely to have attended a single-sex school. Over half (56%) of female engineering students had attended a girls’ school , a rate “significantly higher” than the national average. Among the nine engineering schools at the university, the highest proportion occurred in computer engineering, where 71% of females had attended a single-sex school (Docherty et al., 2018, pp. 1,3).

• A 2019 study of schools belonging to the Young Women’s Preparatory Network in Texas found that students attending the all-girls’ schools showed stronger academic performance in maths and science in middle school and high school, received less formal discipline for poor behaviour, and were more likely to enrol in universities and four-year colleges than girls from co-educational schools who were closely matched on an array of background characteristics including demographics and academic performance in primary school (Pustejovsky, 2019, pp. 1, 6).

• A 2018 study by Fitzsimmons, Yates and Callan has found that self-confidence is "gender neutral" in single-sex schools with girls equally as confident as boys (p. 54). “The importance of this finding cannot be understated,” write the report authors (p. 54), “since arguments over the origins of women’s self-confidence in the workplace are driving organisational interventions in the areas of pay and progression, leadership development, executive selection and communication, to name but a few.” (Also see, Fitzsimmons, Yates & Callan, 2021 .)

• A 2018 German study has found that single-sex programs in computer science and mechanical engineering held since 2001 have led to a decrease in the number of female students dropping out of STEM disciplines at German universities. As a result, these programs have helped lead to an increase in the number of females in traditionally male-dominated STEM fields (Busolt, Ludewig & Schmidt, 2018, p. 251).

• An Australian study, which found that girls attending single-sex schools are more likely to take male-dominated STEM subjects at school and university than girls at co-educational schools, concluded that by “creating a more friendly environment for girls at school, at university and in the workplace which permits them to excel and achieve their potential”, we could begin to address the gender pay gap which results in financial disparities between women and men (Tran, 2017, p. 78).

• In 2015, 7.1% of girls who attended Girls' Day School Trust (GDST) schools in England commenced medicine or dentistry degrees ; 5.4% entered physical science degrees (including physics and chemistry); 3.7% studied engineering degrees; and 2.6% took up mathematical or computer sciences. All of these figures are well above the national girls' participation rates in these subjects (Stannard, 2018, p. 16).

• On 13 October 2014, Professor Alison Booth, Professor of Economics and a Public Policy Fellow at the Australian National University, wrote in the Sydney Morning Herald that: “Females alone appear to benefit from single-gender classes and they benefit significantly. Women