Editing Woman (section)

== Education ==
{{Main|Female education}}
[[File:Bolivia la paz literacy LOC.jpg|thumb|right|upright=0.8|Women attending an adult literacy class in the [[El Alto]] section of [[La Paz]], [[Bolivia]]]]
[[Single-sex education]] has traditionally been dominant and is still highly relevant. Universal education, meaning state-provided primary and secondary education independent of gender, is not yet a global norm, even if it is assumed in most developed countries. In some Western countries, women have surpassed men at many levels of education. For example, in the United States in 2005/2006, women earned 62% of associate degrees, 58% of bachelor's degrees, 60% of master's degrees, and 50% of doctorates.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d07/tables/dt07_178.asp |title=Historical summary of faculty, students, degrees, and finances in degree-granting institutions: Selected years, 1869–70 through 2005–06 |publisher=National Center for Education Statistics |access-date=2014-08-22}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author1=Eisenhart, A. Margaret |author2=Finkel, Elizabeth |title=Women (Still) Need Not Apply:The Gender and Science Reader|year=2001|publisher=Routledge|location=New York|pages=13–23}}</ref>

In 2020, 87% of the world's women were literate, compared to 90% of men; at the same time, only 59% of women in sub-Saharan Africa were literate.<ref>{{Cite web |title=This is how much global literacy has changed over 200 years |url=https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2022/09/reading-writing-global-literacy-rate-changed/ |access-date=2023-03-10 |website=World Economic Forum |date=12 September 2022 |language=en}}</ref> The educational [[Sex ratio|gender gap]] in [[Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development]] (OECD) countries has been reduced over the last 30 years. Younger women today are far more likely to have completed a tertiary qualification: in 19 of the 30 OECD countries, more than twice as many women aged 25 to 34 have completed tertiary education than have women aged 55 to 64. In 21 of 27 OECD countries with comparable data, the number of women graduating from university-level programmes is equal to or exceeds that of men. 15-year-old girls tend to show much higher expectations for their careers than boys of the same age.<ref>[http://www.oecd.org/document/31/0,2340,en_2649_201185_33710751_1_1_1_1,00.html Education Levels Rising in OECD Countries but Low Attainment Still Hampers Some, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development], Publication Date: 14 September 2004. Retrieved December 2006.</ref>
While women account for more than half of university graduates in several OECD countries, they receive only 30% of tertiary degrees granted in science and engineering fields, and women account for only 25% to 35% of researchers in most OECD countries.<ref>[http://www.oecd.org/document/13/0,2340,en_2649_33703_37682893_1_1_1_1,00.html Women in Scientific Careers: Unleashing the Potential, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070210190113/http://www.oecd.org/document/13/0,2340,en_2649_33703_37682893_1_1_1_1,00.html |date=2007-02-10 }}, {{ISBN|92-64-02537-5}}, 2006. Retrieved December 2006.</ref>

Research shows that while women are studying at prestigious universities at the same rate as men they are not being given the same chance to join the faculty. Sociologist [[Harriet Zuckerman]] has observed that the more prestigious an institute is, the more difficult and time-consuming it will be for women to obtain a faculty position there. In 1989, Harvard University tenured its first woman in chemistry, Cynthia Friend, and in 1992 its first woman in physics, Melissa Franklin. She also observed that women were more likely to hold their first [[professional]] positions as instructors and lecturers while men are more likely to work first in tenure positions. According to Smith and Tang, as of 1989, 65% of men and only 40% of women held tenured positions and only 29% of all scientists and engineers employed as assistant professors in four-year colleges and universities were women.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Brainard |first1=Suzanne G. |last2=Carlin |first2=Linda |title=A Six-Year Longitudinal Study of Undergraduate Women in Engineering and Science |journal=Journal of Engineering Education |date=October 1998 |volume=87 |issue=4 |pages=369–375 |id={{ProQuest|217940422}} |doi=10.1002/j.2168-9830.1998.tb00367.x }}</ref> In the Soviet Union, 40% of chemistry PhDs went to women in the 1960s.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Magazine |first=Smithsonian |last2=Eveleth |first2=Rose |title=Soviet Russia Had a Better Record of Training Women in STEM Than America Does Today |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/soviet-russia-had-a-better-record-of-training-women-in-stem-than-america-does-today-180948141/?no-ist |access-date=2025-01-17 |website=Smithsonian Magazine |language=en}}</ref> 

In 1992, women earned 9% of the PhDs awarded in [[engineering]], but only one percent of those women became professors. In 1995, 11% of professors in science and engineering were women. In relation, only 311 deans of engineering schools were women, which is less than 1% of the total. Even in [[psychology]], a degree in which women earn the majority of PhDs, they hold a significant amount of fewer tenured positions, roughly 19% in 1994.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Schiebinger |first1=Londa |title=Has Feminism Changed Science? |date=1999 |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=978-0-674-38113-1 |pages=33–53 |chapter=Meters of Equity |doi=10.2307/j.ctv1msswnm.6 |jstor=j.ctv1msswnm.6 }}</ref>