Hong Kong women have generally lower levels of education than men, according to the “Women and Men in Hong Kong” report just released by the Census and Statistics Department.
This can be partially attributed to the fact that women from older generations had fewer educational opportunities when they were young. In 2013, 76.9% of girls and women over the age of 15 had received education at the secondary level or above, compared to 83.3% of boys and men.
Compared to 1986 statistics, both men and women have higher levels of education as expected, with 50% of females attaining a secondary level of education or above, compared to 61% of men. Thus the gender gap has decreased since then.
When excluding foreign domestic workers, there are 1057 males with a post-secondary degree education level for every 1000 women. If foreign domestic workers are included, then that figure drops to 1016. In 1986, more than twice as many men than woman had post-secondary education.
At the university level, it seems like the inequality trend is set to slowly reverse, with women making up 54.1% of the student body for the 2013-2014 school year at local, subsidized higher education programmes. At the research post-grad level however, women make up 42.5% of the students.
While there are more female teachers from kindergarten to secondary schools, women make up a little over a third (34.3%) of teachers and professors at subsidized higher education institutions.
While the disparities in educational levels are set to decrease at the university level, there is clearly more work to be done.
