Girls’ education in Hong Kong:
Incidental gains and postponed
inequality
香港女童教育: 偶然的平等与延
迟的不公
Grace Mak 麦肖玲
The HK Institute of Education
香港教育学院
1
Two objectives of the paper

A critical review of girls’ participation in
education in the last 20 years:


Progress in what areas? Why?
Remaining gaps?
2
Research on the subject





Mainly in status attainment perspective.
Measuring the gap. More on what than why.
A deficit perspective
Outcome, not process
Unproblematic
Ignores multiplicity and contradictory values
different people attach to achievements.
3
Research gaps


Why – the complex dynamics between
structural factors, e.g., policy and social
trends, and girls’ response to it
Two dimensions of the problem –


Girls’ subjectivities: gendered identity formation
& its interaction with public discourse on gender
relations and edu provision
Epistemology – gendering in school knowledge
& assessment
4
Arguments



Partial gains in education:
 titular policy of universal basic education
 Decline in fertility and raised value of
daughters
Incidental outcome of uncoordinated policy
and demographics, rather than an ideology of
gender equity
Inequality perpetuates in spheres where male
interests continue to be safeguarded: the
family, economy, and politics
5
Arguments

Discourse on gender difference:
 Need to clarify the assumptions
behind relationship between gender &
knowledge/assessment
 contention between natural and social
factors as valid explanation for gender
difference in education.
6
Current situation




Girls’ enrollment rates higher than boys’ since
1991 (3-18 age groups) and since 2001 (1924 age group).
Girls generally “outperform” boys
Gender divide in subjects -- remained but
narrowed.
Increase in women’s participation in higher
education, but mostly in sub-degree
programmes
7
Women as a % of students enrolled in UGC-funded
programmes by level of study, in % of headcount
(Source: UGC)
Level
1997/98
2000/01
2003/04
Sub-degree 64
67
66
Undergrad
50
53
54
Taught
postgrad
Research
postgrad
Total
38
47
51
30
38
43
51
55
55
8
Persons aged 25 and below who were studying outside
Hong Kong by place of study and sex, 2002
Place of study
Male (%)
Female (%) Total (No.)
Canada
63
37
19,600
Australia
42
58
16,400
U.K.
55
45
16,100
U.S.A.
51
49
13,200
Chinese
Mainland
73
27
3,000
Other places
60
40
Total
55
45
Source: Census and Statistics Department (2005), Survey on
"Hong Kong students studying outside Hong Kong" in 2002.
5,800
74,100
9
Questions


What is being compared? Is numerical
gender parity or a deeper sense of fairness
the ultimate objective of intellectual inquiry
into the question?
Are the increases in education misleading in
our assessment of gender equality?
10
Academic Performance



Macall et al.: higher rates of boys than girls in
underachievement esp in P5 and P6
EOC: 1993-1998 P6 girls consistently
outperformed boys
Wong et al.: 1997 HKCEE girls outperform
boys in all areas of school curriculum
11
Academic Performance

HKCEE results in recent years:




Girls generally do better than boys
Except in languages, Grade A-C boys and girls, close
Gender divide in non-language subjects: blurring
HKALE:

Gender divide in lang, math and sci – intensifies; blurs in
other subjects
12
Shifting pattern of gender
difference in new edu context

What is the nature of the change?



School organization
Knowledge organization --Gender matching of knowledge;
what favors who
But: changing performance in math & science
13
Shifting pattern of gender
difference in new edu context




How students perform in a subject – TIMSS vs PISA
findings on science
Gender difference in aptitude and the assumption
behind
Girls’ positive response – natural or socially oriented?
If latter, is it sustainable? A shifting vs constant
phenomenon?
14
Limitation of education as a
change agent


Change in degree
Little fundamental change in gender
inequality in the family, economy, and politics
15
Econ economic outcome of girls’ education
Source: Census & Statistics Dept.
Ed attainment
1991
1996
2001
No sch/kg
0.686
0.675
0.575
Primary
0.640
0.686
0.579
Lower sec
0.682
0.711
0.650
Upper sec
0.833
0.850
0.833
Matric’tion
0.750
0.800
0.607
T non-dg
0.789
0.781
0.765
T degree
0.607
0.666
0.686
Total
0.708
0.800
0.742
16

Contradiction between
Phenomena & Explanation of phenomena
(facts)
(perceptions, values…)

Educators’ consciousness lags behind social
phenomena; gender as a non-issue.
17
Current state of women
education
Womanhood
as personhood
economy
new forms of
inequality
family
politics
Perspectives on gender
roles
18
Agendas for Future Research: Subjectivities



Essentialist stance (a collective voice of women) vs.
Post-modern stance (diversity and multitude of voices)
Inter-gender difference vs intra-gender difference
(Individuals as autonomous beings)
Differential response to education  construction of
gender as a complex social category shaped by
interaction of gender, class, ethnicity and other factors.
19
Agendas for Future Research:
Subjectivities


e.g., underachieving girls as a research
category
e.g., “underachieving” women



Underachievement by choice or by elimination?
Values & re-defining “status” and “achievement”
Liberation or limitation?
20
Epistemology
 Shifting relationship of gender and knowledge
 Natural vs social explanations
21