Sustaining: East Asia Pacific and Central and Eastern Europe

Abstract

East Asia and Central and Eastern Europe are regions where the proportion of women that have chosen hard science among all scientific specializations maintains itself at about 50 % over the past 10 years. In East Asia despite their excellent levels both in science and math and small difference level with boys, a substantial confidence gap is observed for girls. This may provide elements of explanation for the fact that girls’ choices in science tend to remain stereotyped, in fact their proportion in most EMC sub-specializations (engineering, manufacturing, construction) has decreased over the past 10 years. To the contrary, it has improved in other specializations such as physical sciences 60 % and math and computing 65 % where the proportion of women among graduates reaches 48 %. In Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries, girls’ and boys’ results in PISA test are also among the best in the world. However, strong improvements in students’ level have contributed to reduce the gender gap previously observed between boys’ and girls’ levels. CEE is the region in the world where girls’ confidence gap almost doesn’t exist. It is also one of the few regions in the world where feminization moves up in manufacturing where women represent 55 % of tertiary graduates, as well as in fields such as physical sciences 56 % and math 61 %.