Women are more educated than men

AS FOR the level of education achieved, Slovak women are better off than men: they end their education with primary school more often than men, but they also more frequently achieve secondary education with a final exam passed, or graduated from a college or a university.

The poll showed that as many as 73 percent of Slovaks trust educational institutions.The poll showed that as many as 73 percent of Slovaks trust educational institutions. (Source: Sme)

Most men finished their education with a secondary vocational school or secondary professional school without final exam (equalling probably an A-level test in the UK), a report on the state of gender equality in Slovakia in 2014, elaborated by the Labour, Social Affairs and Family Ministry, informed in May.

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Since approximately 1997, women have been upending the male primacy in studying at colleges and universities, gradually taking the upper hand. Since 2006, the share of women studying at college exceeds 60 percent of all students, the SITA newswire wrote quoting the report. Last year, in total 68,474 men were studying at colleges and universities, 51,306 of them in an internal, daily form of study and 17,168 in distance courses of study.

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Almost twice that many women were studying at the same level – 109,980 (76,908 in an internal form of study, and 33,072 in external). In 2011, a total of 398,000 and 349,000 men graduated from universities and colleges. Women prevailingly have bachelor and master/engineer degrees (75,000 women and 47,500 men graduating as bachelors; almost 305,000 women and 279,000 men as masters).

However, the share changed to their disadvantage at the third-level of study, when the graduate and PhD levels were undertaken by 22,000 men and 18,000 women.

A big difference has been detected among people aged 30 and 34: last year, 42 percent of females and 33 percent of males attended graduate/PhD courses in the European Union; while in Slovakia, the share was 31 percent of women and 23 percent of men. This results in one of the worst rankings for Slovakia within the EU, together with Bulgaria and Romania; only Italy is faring worse.

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From among economically active people, 24 percent of females had some kind of university/college education, while only 18 percent of males.

The differences in Slovakia between genders are not just in education completed and academic career, but also among course specialisations as women most often prefer medical and pharmaceutical sciences, as well as sciences and history of culture or art. Their share in natural sciences has also increased. In the long term, less women study technical sciences, agriculture, forestry and military sciences or theories.

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