Trend of Women as the Majority of Talent Will Continue - Building Gender Balanced Business

According to a recent OECD report, Higher Education to 2030, women will become an even larger majority of the graduate talent pool in only one decade. In 2005, OECD countries awarded 57% of their degrees on average to women. If the trend continues, the percentage could reach 63% by 2025.

This average figure hides the wide differences between countries. At the lower end of the range is Japan where 49% of graduates were women in 2005. This percentage is not forecast to go above 55% in the next decade and a half. On the other hand, the percentage of women graduates in Sweden is set to increase from 63% in 2005 to 76% by 2020. In other words, almost eight out of ten of all graduates will be women in Sweden within eleven years.

Already, companies are having to ensure they don’t swing the gender balance of their graduate hires too far in favour of women (see our article on Shell, for example), something that will become more relevant as the numbers of women graduates increases.

But what do they choose to study?
There needs to be a health warning, though, on these statistics. The author of the research pointed out that there are significant differences in the choice of the studies taken at University, which have implications for the graduate’s career and earning potential. “Women, for example, are far more likely than men to study subjects relating to education, teaching, health and the social sector (and are subsequently over-represented in these professions). Men, for their part, are more likely to choose science or engineering which, in addition, lead to higher salaries in the labour market.”

“In other words, almost eight out of ten of all graduates will be women in Sweden within eleven years.”

Vincent-Lancrin, Stéphan, “The Reversal of Gender Equalities in Higher Education: An Ongoing Trend” in Higher Education To 2030 – Volume 1: Demography (OECD, 2008). Click here for more information on the OECD report.