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All around the world, girls outperform boys on reading tests. Why is this? In and outside of academia, people have been concerned about girls’ under-performance in math, or more generally: STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math). There have been fewer academic studies and media coverage about boys’ under-performance in reading. This is surprising, since it might offer an explanation for boys’ lagging educational attainment today.
Not too long ago, women were lower educated than men throughout the world. In the second half of the 20th century, the gender gap shrank until it reversed into a female-favorable gap around the 1990s in most Western countries. In most of the Western world, however, blue-collar jobs traditionally held by men are being transferred to developing countries. Since then, some policymakers have started to worry about boys’ underperformance in education.
One possible explanation for men’s lower educational attainment relates to boys’ language skills. In almost all OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development partner) countries boys are less skilled readers and read less for enjoyment.
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