MEN AND WOMEN

Changes in social attitudes towards the roles and responsibilities of men and women in the latter part of the last century have resulted in an increase in women's educational participation and attainment. As a result, the difference in overall attainment between men and women has become less pronounced.

In 2009, proportionally more young women (aged 20-24 years) had a vocational or higher education qualification than young men (48% compared with 41%). This was also the case for men and women under the age of 35. However, for people aged 35 years and over, the opposite was true with proportionally more men than women holding a vocational or higher education qualification.

For the 25-64 year age group as a whole, proportionally more men had a vocational or higher education qualification than women, but this difference is declining. Between 1999 and 2009, the proportion of women (aged 25-64 years) with a vocational or higher education qualification increased from 44% to 60%. In 1999, there was a 12 percentage point difference in the proportion of men (55%) and women (44%) aged 25-64 who had a vocational or higher education qualification. This difference had decreased to 5 percentage points by 2009 (65% for men and 60% for women). This may in part reflect a cohort effect with older, less qualified people, moving out of the 25-64 year age group and younger people with qualifications moving into the group.

Not surprisingly, changes in attainment are consistent with changes in participation over this period. The Year 7/8 to Year 12 apparent retention rate showed that since the mid 1980s female students have been more likely than male students to continue through secondary school to Year 12. In 2009, the Year 12 apparent retention rate for female students was 81% compared with 71% for male students.

People with a vocational or higher education qualification
	1999			2009
	Males	Females		Males	Females
Age group (years)	%	%		%	%
15-19	3.6	5.0		6.3	9.2
20-24	38.6	43.3		41.0	48.0
25-34	56.0	49.9		66.8	70.4
35-44	58.5	47.6		67.3	61.4
45-54	55.6	41.4		64.3	58.0
55-64	47.5	28.3		61.6	46.5
Total 25-64	55.2	43.5		65.2	59.8
Total 15-64	47.9	39.5		56.4	53.6
Source: ABS data available on request, 2009 Survey of Education and Work; ABS data available on request, 1999 Transition from Education to Work Survey