Do you remember a female headmaster or university president when you were a student? If yes, you are among the few lucky ones! These are not marginal statistics — they are structural signals. Leadership in education, today, does not reflect the diversity of the systems it is meant to serve. This glass ceiling bars girls and women from leadership positions in education and must go!

You cannot be what you cannot see. Leadership is one of the most powerful forces shaping education — and yet one of the most overlooked. It defines how schools function, who gets heard in staffrooms, and whether equity is just a word in policy or truly a lived experience. But the problem is not just how leadership operates — it’s who holds it.

The UNESCO 2025 Gender Report Women lead for learning shows clearly that education systems around the world suffer from a leadership imbalance: in contexts where women dominate the teaching workforce, they remain dramatically underrepresented in formal leadership roles.

Let’s take just one example. According to the report:

• In over half of the countries explored in the report, women make up more than 60% of primary school teachers, but
• They represent less than 20% of head teachers in 33% of these countries.

This discrepancy is even starker in secondary education and almost universal in higher education. This must change.

Promoting women’s leadership in education is not just a nice-to-have—it is both a moral and economic imperative. The Gender Report demonstrates that when women lead, schools are more likely to focus on educational quality rather than administration, and foster inclusive, collaborative learning environments—all of which ultimately lead to improved student outcomes.

A compelling case study in the report comes from Ethiopia. In a recent research paper, Prof. Abebaw Yirga Adamu from Addis Ababa University examined female leadership in public universities and found that:

• Only 2 out of 46 public universities in Ethiopia are currently led by women.
• Women in the same country hold just 8% of senior leadership positions, down from 12% just a few years ago.
• In contrast, the number of female students and faculty has been increasing, indicating a widening gap between educational participation and decision-making.

These women — the few who do lead — are not only administrators. They are change agents, navigating systems not built with them in mind. They often carry additional emotional and institutional burdens, yet remain deeply committed to inclusion, fairness, and progress. As women, they are role models for young girls and students, empowering them from the beginning of their educational journey.

At the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), these findings resonate deeply with our broader commitment to gender equality and inclusive, resilient education systems. We congratulate the GEM Report for putting an issue like female leadership on center stage — and for challenging policymakers to act on evidence.

Only when we collect disaggregated data, examine gendered patterns in leadership access, and analyze their consequences, we can develop truly system-relevant policies. The call is clear: equity in leadership is not a side issue — it is core to the quality and legitimacy of education systems.

That’s why BMZ integrates leadership development and gender equity in many of its education programmes. This includes:

• Supporting leadership pathways for women in school management and teacher training,
• Promoting gender-sensitive governance structures at institutional and ministerial levels, and
• Building platforms for peer learning and exchange between female leaders across countries.

But we also recognize the limits of technical interventions if structural change does not follow. Removing barriers — from biased recruitment criteria to discriminatory norms — is essential. Female leadership cannot remain the exception — it must become the norm and therefore change societies.

The 2025 Gender Report reminds us that leadership is not gender-neutral — and never has been. It offers inspiration, not just sobering statistics: from countries that have made gains through quotas, to schools that foster inclusive leadership cultures, to individuals who change systems from within. As Prof. Abebaw writes: “Women’s leadership is not only a matter of representation, but of institutional transformation.”

We agree. This transformational change is urgently needed.

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Across the globe, female politicians and education ministers remain underrepresented. Yet when they do attain leadership roles, their influence on education policy is profound. Women in power often champion inclusive, equitable education reform—and they stay in office longer, enabling deeper, more sustained change. The new 2025 Global Education Monitoring Gender Report, Women lead for learning, outlines how gender diversity in political leadership translates into measurable educational outcomes.

Over 2010-2023, only 27% of the world’s education and higher education ministers were female. Regional differences are stark: Europe and North America have the highest rates (41%), while Northern Africa and Western Asia trail behind (7%). Yet in these relatively few cases where women hold the top job in education, results speak volumes.

Countries with more women in cabinet-level education positions tend to spend more on education and prioritize issues like girls’ education, teacher working conditions, and early childhood development.

For example, in Germany, municipalities with a higher share of female councillors were more proactive in expanding public childcare services. In Argentina, female legislators were more likely than their male peers to sponsor and support bills on childcare, reproductive rights and domestic violence. In India, village councils led by women invested more women’s priorities like water and education.

A quantitative review of 19 OECD countries revealed that a 1 percentage point increase in female representation in lower houses is associated with a 0.04 percentage point increase in educational expenditures as a share of gross domestic product (GDP). These figures reinforce the long-observed trend: women in politics direct policy attention toward the social sector.

In Rwanda, one of the world’s most gender-progressive legislatures, 61% of MPs are women. This political representation has helped establish policies that support gender-sensitive curricula and expand girls’ access to schooling. Yet paradoxically, only 30% of Rwandan school principals are female, showing that policy progress doesn’t always filter down to implementation.

Quotas are a proven tool for change. Where countries have adopted gender quotas for parliamentary seats, the results have been transformative. In Afghanistan before 2021, quotas boosted a 30% enrolment increase to public universities for women from districts with a low socioeconomic status. Namibia introduced a 30% gender quota in 1992 to ensure women’s representation in decision-making positions. In 2025, the country elected its first female president and vice president, while 50% of cabinet members are women.

Women also tend to remain longer in their ministerial posts. Longevity matters—particularly when systemic reform takes years to implement.

Still, glass ceilings persist in many senior education leadership positions. In the Arab States, female university presidents are rare. In 2018, Bahrain, Kuwait, Libya, Qatar and Yemen had no female university presidents, while the share was 3% in Iraq and 13% in Lebanon, Oman and Tunisia.

Even where women make up large shares of students and teachers, they remain marginalized in governance. In Saudi Arabia, women account for over 50% of tertiary enrolments but l% of university leadership. In Malaysia, women are more likely to be associate professors but less likely to be promoted to dean or rector.

Even where women make up large shares of students and teachers, they remain marginalized in governance. In Saudi Arabia, women account for over 50% of tertiary enrolments but less than 10% of university leadership positions. In Malaysia only 2 women were vice-chancellors in 20 public universities in 2020.

So what can drive change?

1. Beyond quotas, countries must institutionalize leadership pipelines. This includes leadership training for women at the early and mid-career stages, sponsorship programmes that link them with senior political mentors, and governance reforms that improve transparency in appointments.

Some efforts are already underway. Among women that participated in a leadership training programme in sub-Saharan Africa, 91% found that it improved their leadership. In South Africa, mentoring networks among female parliamentarians have helped new members build confidence and legislative know-how. In Ireland, a network grown up from a workshop addressing barriers to education leadership for women and building ‘bridges’, summarized as ‘confidence, culture and childcare’, aims to support women in their journey through leadership with workshops and face-to-face meetings.

2. 2. Changing mindsets is also essential. Gender stereotypes about who should lead persist in media portrayals, recruitment policies, and even education itself. Campaigns to highlight female leadership in politics—featuring ministers, mayors, and legislators—can challenge these stereotypes and normalize women in power.
   3. Finally, tracking gender parity in senior leadership roles is essential. Good quality data, helps accountability.

In sum, the inclusion of women in education governance is not merely symbolic. It changes outcomes—shifting priorities toward equity, increasing investments in human capital, and inspiring a new generation of female leaders. The challenge is no longer to prove that women can govern. It is to ensure they are given the chance.

Strategies are needed to equalize education leadership opportunities through integrated and holistic interventions. The GEM Report proposes three broad sets of recommendations to climb the ladder towards higher leadership positions:

1. Find where the ladder is broken. Track women’s progression towards education leadership
2. Fix the broken ladder. Repair systemic flaws
3. Offer a helping hand up the ladder. Guide women’s ascent to leadership positions.

• Download the 2025 Gender Report
• Download the executive summary
• Share the social media messages

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Yes, it is easy to pontificate about the need for better gender balance in education leadership from where I sit, as a male education director. Think what you will. Having just spent a significant amount of time analysing the relationship between gender and leadership, however, what I can tell you is that the gender imbalance at the top in education makes no sense.

The first thing to realize is that women form the backbone of the teaching profession around the world. It is, as many say, a ‘feminized profession’. The sluggish progress in women’s leadership in education, therefore, is particularly puzzling. It is also troubling looking at this from the perspective of the school: the very institution that is meant to shape future generations.

Not all teachers can go on to become leaders. But experience as a teacher is a prerequisite for taking up a leadership position in a school. It also helps in politics. Think of the mistakes ministers of education make without that grounding when interacting with teacher unions. And yet the logic ends there.

Female representation dwindles dramatically as leadership stakes rise. In francophone Africa, only one in six principals are women. The drop continues into secondary education: across 70 countries, there is a gap of 20 percentage points separating the share of female teachers from the share of female principals. And in higher education institutions, women hold less than one third of leadership roles globally, a share that plummets to below one tenth in some Arab and Asian countries.

This situation mirrors the broader political landscape. Despite increasing awareness of gender gaps, women still fight for equitable representation in parliaments and executive positions. We carried out a mapping of education ministers to assess the gaps. It showed that only 27% of education and higher education ministers were women between 2010 and 2023. All education ministers were male until 2014 in France, Mauritius and Myanmar, for instance; the first female education minister in Ukraine was only appointed in 2016.

The fact that female education ministers, when they do break through, have a tenure that is longer by four months relative to their male counterparts – a finding in our report, Women lead for learning – suggests not a lack of capability, but perhaps a greater resilience needed to succeed; a resilience that goes unnoticed when selection procedures for new positions come around.

If women lead longer, should they not also be leading more?

No matter whether you think there are gender-specific ways of leading and what might explain them, different approaches do exist and, when women lead schools, that plays out.

The glass ceiling in education leadership, much like the barriers women face in the political and corporate spheres, is not just a matter of numbers. It’s about the loss of these diverse perspectives, the stifling of innovative approaches, and the perpetuation of a system that doesn’t fully reflect the very students it serves. Just as movements advocate for greater female representation in government to ensure policies are more inclusive and representative, we must champion women in education leadership to cultivate learning environments where every child can thrive.

We called our report Women lead for learning because we also saw the benefits for learning outcomes that can come from having women leaders, particularly in low-income countries, where they are the most absent. Schools with female leaders in several African and Asian countries demonstrate significantly improved learning outcomes for students, sometimes equivalent to months of additional schooling. This echoes the broader societal benefits seen when women hold political power, influencing policy decisions that lead to tangible improvements in education, health and social welfare.

What is less obvious than the fact that more women should be climbing the leadership ladder, is how to do that. Since gender inequality is systemic, solutions need to be systemic too.

Our research recommended that countries find out where the rungs are broken on the leadership ladder in order to see where gender barriers have settled in. Multiple countries across all continents have drawn attention to the issue by setting targets for women in school leadership positions and parliaments, but this will remain token unless it is accompanied by other measures.

Unconscious bias is a pest precisely because it is invisible. Training is needed for all making decisions affecting education leaders to recognise that true strength in leadership comes in multiple shapes and sizes.

Mentorship is also needed for incoming women leaders to help them deal with specific problems they encounter on appointment.

Just as the political landscape slowly evolves towards greater inclusivity, our education systems must urgently follow suit. By combining evidence, targeted policies, and cultural change, we can transform education systems so that every capable leader—regardless of gender—has both the opportunity and the support to drive excellence for all learners. The future of learning, and the future of a more equitable society, depends on it.

• Download the 2025 Gender Report
• Download the executive summary
• Share the social media messages

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Gender disparity in education leadership is a global issue

The report offers global data showing gender disparity in education leadership. While 81% of care centre and preschool leaders were women in selected OECD countries, women made up only 16% of primary school principals in francophone Africa. 

In 70 upper-middle- and high-income countries, there is a 20-point gender gap in secondary school leadership. In higher education globally, only 30% of leaders are women. Data from sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia and from countries such as Australia, Chile, Qatar and the United States also show that women often have to prove themselves as teachers for longer than men before becoming leaders.  

The disparity is found in government as well. A new global database compiled by the GEM Report of education and higher education ministers shows that only 27% were women in 2010–2023, and that female ministers had longer tenures than male ministers on average by about 4 months. 

Women principals promote a collaborative culture

In some contexts, female leadership is associated with stronger community engagement, more emphasis on inclusive policies addressing barriers for girls (such as gender-based violence and menstrual health), and promoting collaborative school cultures. Data across 44 upper-middle- and high-income countries shows that female principals dedicate more time than their male peers to the curriculum, teaching, and interactions with parent and students.  

In low-income countries, when women lead schools, learning outcomes have been found to improve. Schools led by women have been found to improve learning outcomes by the equivalent of an additional year of schooling in some francophone African countries, and by up to 6 months in some South-eastern Asian countries. 

A link is also noted between female political representation and increased investment in education. Across 19 high-income countries, a one-point increase in female representation in lower houses of parliament is associated with a 0.04 point increase in education expenditure as a percentage of GDP.  

Recommendations

Women lead for learning calls for three key interventions to close the leadership gap:  

1. Identify where the ladder is broken: Track women’s progression towards education leadership positions. Assess barriers women face and expose systemic biases hindering their ascent.  
2. Fix the broken structure: Repair systemic flaws by providing training to shift mindsets and mitigate gender bias in recruitment. Promote flexible work schedules to accommodate parental responsibilities. 
3. Guide women’s ascent to leadership positions through training, coaching and mentorship. 

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Critical UNESCO Institute for Statistics data for 2018–23 show that women made up only 35% of STEM graduates globally, with no progress over the past 10 years. Part of this can be explained by the fact that girls’ confidence in mathematics appears to be knocked early, even when they perform well, as a previous blog explained. Part of it can be explained by negative gender stereotypes that also prevent women from pursuing STEM careers. Only one in four women with an information technology degree took up digital occupations in the European Union, compared with over one in two men.

The digital transformation is led by men as a result as we showed in the 2024 GEM Gender Report: Technology on her terms. Women constitute only 26% of employees in data and artificial intelligence, 15% in engineering, and 12% in cloud computing across the world’s leading economies. This is a loss to society.

The GEM Report will present a new advocacy brief at this week’s conference that proposes actions countries should take to redress the balance:

1. Review STEM policies to ensure they have a gender component. While 68% of countries globally have policies to support STEM education, only half of these policies specifically target girls and women.
   • In the Gambia, there are STEM clubs in senior secondary schools and outreach programmes to raise awareness among female students.
   • In Kenya, the Ministry of Education has organized STEM bootcamps in schools to encourage girls to pursue STEM studies and careers.
   • In Namibia, the National Science and Technology Innovation Policy stresses the need to improve gender equality in STEM and to establish/improve programmes that support women’s participation in science education and science careers.
   • In Rwanda, Girls in ICT aims to inspire more girls to join STEM fields. It runs awareness campaigns, mostly in secondary schools, in partnership with the Ministry of ICT and Youth. Renamed Ms Geek Africa, the initiative is now present in 22 African countries.
   • In Zambia, the Technical Education, Vocational and Entrepreneurship Training Authority has established a platform offering free digital skill courses targeted, among others, at women.        
2. Provide role models, mentorship and gender-responsive career counselling. Girls need to see women succeeding in STEM fields in order to believe that they can do it too. Counselling and guidance can help girls see STEM pathways they would not have considered, while role models and mentorship activities can challenge stereotypes about ‘gender-suitable’ subjects.

   Schools can create STEM clubs and organizations that are led by female students and teachers. They can also partner with local businesses and organizations to provide girls with opportunities to meet and learn from female STEM professionals and enable them to see that their skills are valuable in technical occupation. Female mentors can also improve the culture of STEM workplaces, which can be male-dominated and hostile to women.

   Countries need to include gender-responsive school counselling and career orientation to nurture girls’ talents and interests in STEM and TVET. A key element of this kind of gender-sensitive orientation is professional training in gender-responsive guidance for teachers and counsellors.

   Career guidance programmes should aim to raise awareness among parents to enable them to play supportive roles free of biased notions of gender-appropriate careers.

   

3. Train teachers and school leaders to start early in overcoming STEM gender bias. This involves overturning girls’ mathematics anxiety, helping make STEM relevant to girls’ interests as well as addressing their own bias and stereotypes. n primary school, teachers can use gender-neutral language when teaching STEM concepts and provide opportunities for girls to explore STEM activities. They can also invite female STEM professionals to speak to the class.                              
4. Enhance girls’ digital literacy to close the skills gender gap. Establish a framework of digital competences that provides guidance for the skills all learners should acquire, no matter their gender.

   

5. Review teaching and learning materials for negative gender bias on ‘appropriate’ study choices. Biased gender norms and stereotypes embedded in curricula and textbooks influence girls’ choices of what to study and what careers to pursue, risking the reproduction and reinforcement of traditional, discriminatory gender norms that negatively impact students’ interests and aspirations. Men are more likely to be represented in textbooks as science professionals, by name or in illustrations, while women are more likely to be depicted in care occupations. Children are likely to internalize these stereotypes, which influence their attitudes and aspirations.
6. Cross-sectoral, holistic approaches can help address gender gaps in STEM. Germany provides two examples that represent a collaboration between the ministries of women, youth, labour and social affairs. The platform Komm-mach-MINT (Come do STEM) is an online information hub intended to help girls and women choose further STEM study and careers. It provides information on STEM for secondary and university students, parents, teachers and organizations. Klischeefrei (Cliché free), launched in 2017, aims to remove gender stereotypes in all career and study paths for girls and boys starting from the pre-primary level all the way up to university and employment. It offers materials for teachers and counsellors to use in their classes.
7. Work with non-state actors…

• • to assure gender-sensitive digital transformation and address gender stereotypes in algorithms.
  • to encourage STEM participation among girls and women through formal and non-formal education. Non-state actors often run initiatives and programmes on school and career counselling, for instance, that help students make informed choices, free of gender bias, focusing on gender-responsive learning materials and practices that reinforce the idea that women can join any profession. Non-state actors can boost girls’ interest in science through classroom interventions and extracurricular activities, such as museum visits and contests.

Further reading:

• Download the advocacy brief to read which countries are reflecting these recommendations in their policies.
• Download the 2024 GEM Gender Report to read about the importance of gender balance in STEM subjects for gender balance in the digital transformation.

The post Seven steps to support girls and women to pursue STEM subjects and careers appeared first on World Education Blog.

SDG thematic indicator 4.a.2 measures the percentage of students who experienced bullying in the past 12 months. The latest addition to the UIS database comes from the 2022 round of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) which measures several types of bullying behaviour among 15-year-olds. The most common behaviour is verbal and relational where students reported ‘Other students made fun of me’ and ‘Other students spread nasty rumours about me’.  

In most participating countries, the prevalence of bullying is higher for students that are from a disadvantaged socioeconomic background, are immigrant and male. But across countries that took part in the 2018 and 2022 PISA, bullying has been increasing faster for girls than for boys. In 34 of the 66 countries with available data, bullying increased by at least 2 percentage points for girls between 2018 and 2022. The same was true for boys in only 22 countries. In the 10 countries where bullying increased the most between 2018 and 2022, the increase for girls was considerably higher than for boys. In Türkiye, the share of 15-year-old girls who experienced bullying increased by 18 percentage points, compared to an increase of 7 percentage points for boys.  

Why has bullying increased more for girls?

The faster increase in the prevalence of bullying for girls aligns with their higher vulnerability to cyberbullying, which is partly because, as the 2024 Gender Report on technology in education: Technology on her terms showed,  girls often spend more time on social media than boys. A cross-country study of 31 high- and 11 low- and middle-income countries found that the relationship between intense social media use and being a victim of cyberbullying was more common for girls than for boys, at least partly due to the greater amount of time they spend online. In the United Kingdom, girls were more likely to report spending time on social media from the age of 10 and, at age 15, 43% of girls vs 31% of boys reported spending one to three hours a day on social media.  

Girls are also more often targeted by specific types of cyberbullying. Algorithm-driven image-based content, in particular, can expose girls to inappropriate material, ranging from sexual content to videos that glorify unhealthy behaviours or unrealistic body standards.  

What can be done to address bullying? 

Cyberbullying takes various forms, such as the deliberate publication of photos or videos of individuals without their consent, exclusion from digital groups, verbal violence and insults and threats. Many countries’ policies on technology in education are responding with awareness-raising, reporting mechanisms and digital risk interventions, usually at the school level. A systematic review and meta-analysis of interventions in selected, mostly high-income countries estimated that the average programme has a 73% chance of reducing cyberbullying victimization.  

Cyberbullying can be fuelled by a lack of proper policies and a lack of regulations over smartphone use. Concerns over privacy and student wellbeing have prompted parents, teachers and government officials to advocate for stricter regulations on technology use among children. The 2023 GEM Report showed that over one third of countries have banned smartphone use in schools, with Sweden, Türkiye, the United Kingdom, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo (Brazil), Quebec (Canada), Kerala and Andhra Pradesh (India) and Aceh Province (Indonesia) amongst others, restricting their use in schools since the report was launched in July 2023.  

Banning smartphones from classrooms may protect children from the risks of being online but is not a magical solution. As the prevalence of bullying continues to rise, countries need to take stronger measures to protect children from the risks of being online. The GEM Report’s PEER country profiles show that only 16% of countries had legislation in place to prevent and act on cyberbullying in school; of those, 38% did so since the COVID-19 pandemic.  

Earlier this month, representatives from governments, international organizations, the civil society, experts and youth representatives gathered in Bogota for the first Global Ministerial Conference on Ending Violence Against Children. Convened by the Government of Colombia with the support of the Government of Sweden, UNICEF, the United Nations Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Violence against Children and the World Health Organization, the Conference provided a pivotal moment to drive policy change and resources to demonstrate that violence prevention is possible. The discussions focused on preventing different types of violence, including cyberbullying. Protecting children from the threats of being online and ensuring safe digital futures for children and youth were one of the key priorities.  

Schools and online learning spaces should provide safe and supportive environments for all, including girls and women. As we continue to celebrate these key international days, robust evidence is needed more than ever, as it can help us shed light on the challenges, drive policy and demonstrate that change is possible.  

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As the first female maths teacher in a low-income school in Dhaka, Bangladesh, I witnessed how deeply ingrained cultural and societal barriers continue to block girls’ access to quality education. Efforts were made to ensure girls attended school—scholarships were offered, policies mandated enrollment, and sanitary supplies were provided for girls. But I saw firsthand that these well-intentioned efforts didn’t always translate into meaningful change. Girls were still dropping out of my school because of cultural expectations, early marriage, or simply because their education wasn’t prioritized at home. It became clear that while these technical fixes were necessary, they didn’t address the deeper, systemic issues that held girls back.

Too often, policymakers focus on quick, measurable fixes, leaving the root causes of inequality unaddressed. But despite decades of investment, technical solutions—like more workshops, distribution of sanitary pads, and new policies—fail to address these underlying challenges. According to a recent report, between 2019 and 2022, nearly 40% of countries—home to over 1.1 billion women and girls—stagnated or regressed in gender equality. Even more alarming, UN Women reports that we are not on track to meet any of the Sustainable Development Goal 5 (SDG 5) targets for gender equality. 

These statistics raise a critical question: Is our current focus on technical solutions truly addressing the systemic challenges facing girls’ education? While these efforts are important for addressing immediate needs, they are not sufficient to confront the societal and cultural barriers that perpetuate inequality. Achieving sustainable change requires leadership within communities from people who understand the unique challenges girls face and are committed to dismantling these barriers.

It is the leadership of teachers and community members, deeply embedded in the daily lives of their students, that was the most transformative force in the lives of the girls I’ve worked with. These advocates challenged the status quo and created safe, nurturing spaces where girls can learn and grow. They saw each girl as a full individual, with unique experiences and potential. Most importantly, when girls themselves have the leadership skills, knowledge, and confidence to envision their futures, they are empowered to make decisions unconstrained by gender norms.

At a school in Cheiko, Kenya, two Teach For Kenya teachers June and Paul have identified gender-based violence as a big challenge for the students in their classrooms. They planned and designed safe classroom cultures and activities that strengthened awareness and protective measures against gender-based violence within the community. As a result, the students started to share their challenges and experiences. These two brave teachers, with the support of community members and child rights groups, rescued girls from abuse and helped navigate the legal procedures to identify the perpetrators and pursue justice. When local leaders engage with their communities, they are not just solving individual problems—they are fostering the kind of resilience that can continuously adapt and respond to new challenges. 

Similarly, CAMFED’s pan-African network of young women leaders demonstrates the power of strong grassroots leadership in advancing girls’ education. Comprising teachers, nurses, entrepreneurs, and activists, these women are challenging societal norms and advocating for change at local, national, and global levels. Their leadership not only transforms individual lives but also creates ripple effects that uplift entire communities—establishing networks, advocating for policies, and shifting cultural norms that ultimately reshape the educational landscape for girls. 

While much of the focus in girls’ education is rightly on female leaders, male allies play an equally important role in dismantling traditional ideas about gender roles and advocating for girls’ education.  Hasibur Rahman Sohan, a Teach For Bangladesh male teacher, identified early marriage as a major challenge for primary school girls in his rural community in northern Bangladesh. In addition to working with women,  Hasibur built close relationships with fathers, male community leaders, and peer teachers to engage them in addressing the issue of early marriage. He became a regular participant of the daily discussions at tea stalls, roadside chats, and community events. Through these conversations, Hasibur developed male champions who, alongside him, began to question and shift harmful gender stereotypes that contributed to early marriage. Today, Hasibur leads the program team of Teach For Bangladesh, where girls’ education remains a central priority, working with hundreds of teachers across the country.

These examples all point to one central conclusion: leadership embedded within communities has the power to drive lasting, systemic change. To unlock this potential, we need to invest in developing this leadership at every level.

In my own journey, being the only female maths teacher in a community not only shifted perceptions but actively challenged traditional gender roles. Parents, teachers, and community members began to rethink what was possible for their daughters, while the girls themselves showed increasing interest in STEM subjects. Many of them are now pursuing careers in these fields. This multiplier effect is a testament to the power of visible, vocal, and proactive leadership. But the work cannot stop there. We must continue to cultivate an ecosystem that not only empowers girls to learn and grow but prepares them to become leaders themselves—driving change in their own communities.

In a world where girls’ rights are under threat, more policies, more schools, and technical solutions are important, but they alone are not enough. What creates resilient systems is a critical mass of local leaders with the capacity and values to challenge the status quo and advocate for lasting change. Investing in leadership development—among girls and at every level of the systems that surround them—ensures that progress toward gender equality is not only protected but accelerated, creating ecosystems where girls can thrive and lead, shaping their own futures. 

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Progress aside, however, it remains the case that parity has not been achieved at the same rates for all levels of education in sub-Saharan Africa.  As of 2020, for every 100 enrolled males, there were 96 females enrolled in primary, 91 in lower secondary, 87 in upper secondary and 80 in tertiary education. In addition, in absolute numbers, sub-Saharan Africa is the main world region where there are more girls of primary and secondary school age who are out of school than boys – and the out-of-school population is growing. 

Enrolment, meanwhile, is only a stepping stone towards completion. And completion rates have nuances to them as well. The 2024 Gender Report looked at whether starting an education cycle on time or not had implications for girls’ ultimate likelihood of completing. As the title of this blog suggests, it matters an awful lot.

In primary education, there is gender parity in both the rates of those completing on time (timely) and those completing at all (ultimate), globally, while the same is true in Central and Southern Asia, a reference region. But in sub-Saharan Africa since 2013, girls have been far more likely than boys to complete primary school on time but far less likely to ultimately complete primary school than boys: 96 girls complete for every 100 boys who do so.  

 In lower secondary education, there is gender parity in both timely and ultimate completion rates, globally, and also in Central and Southern Asia since 2020. In sub-Saharan Africa, meanwhile, gender parity in timely completion has almost been achieved, but girls are at a much bigger disadvantage in ultimate completion: 85 girls complete for every 100 boys. This means that if girls start school on time and do not repeat grades, they are currently almost as likely as boys to complete lower secondary school as boys. But if they start late or repeat grades, reaching the age of 15 and still not at the end of lower secondary school, they are more likely to drop out.  

 This finding shows the importance of making it easy for boys and girls to start school on time, ensuring that competing priorities do not get in the way. It provides additional evidence of remedial education, as well, so that girls are not falling behind, ending up repeating grades, and increasing their chances of dropping out. Our Spotlight research showed many examples of countries in Africa providing remedial education, from up to 10 hours a week in Uganda to training courses for teachers on remedial education in Chad. A remedial programme expanded in Senegal after 2018 saw improved basic reading skills by 25% and mathematics proficiency by 40% in endline assessments as a result, for example.  

Such examples and more should be inspiration to others to attempt similar policies and help ensure all children – no matter their gender, background or identity – can complete a quality education.

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Mathematical capability and knowledge are critical to developing STEM skills and working in STEM fields. However, the 2024 Gender Report contained the estimate that one in five people feel anxious about mathematics with anxiety levels higher among girls, even when they perform well. In all participating education systems in the 2019 TIMSS, except Bahrain and Egypt, boys reported being significantly more confident in mathematics than girls. Why?

As part of the 2022 PISA survey, an index of mathematics anxiety was developed. Three Arab countries (Jordan, the State of Palestine and Saudi Arabia) and Cambodia were the only ones without a gender gap. The largest absolute gender gaps in anxiety were reported in Denmark, France, Germany and Norway. In France, a longitudinal survey of Children, Elfe, which is following 18,000 children born in 2011 for 20 years, found that girls are as good at calculations as boys up to grade 1, but gaps emerge between ages 5 and 6 and worsen thereafter.  

Girls’ mathematics anxiety impacts on their mathematics score. At least a quarter of the total variation in mathematics performance across countries could be explained by the differences in overall mathematics anxiety in each country. Conversely, a study based on PISA data from an earlier round found a positive relationship between intending to pursue mathematics and mathematics performance, which was stronger among boys than among girls.

Mathematics anxiety influences subject choices.  

Boys’ and girls’ educational trajectories diverge at around the age when they start deciding about their careers.  This leads to women being considerably less likely to choose STEM fields. UIS data from 2018–23 shows that women only make up 35% of STEM graduates, the same share as a decade earlier. In 12 out of 122 countries, at most one in four graduates were female. At the opposite end, however, there were nine countries where the majority of STEM graduates were female, notably Arab States, such as the Syrian Arab Republic and Tunisia. It is notable that high shares of female STEM graduates in Arab countries coincide with lower mathematics anxiety.  

Gender and social identities and stereotypes matter. 

More attention needs to be dedicated to women’s confidence and career development in tertiary STEM education and to overcoming the challenges to self-efficacy resulting from stereotyping and discrimination. In the United Kingdom, the 2019 Engineering Board Monitor showed that girls outperform boys in most STEM subjects in secondary school and yet still had low self-belief in their ability to do well in STEM. 

Analysis of China Education Panel Survey data showed that more than 5 in 10 students and 4 in 10 parents agreed that boys were better at mathematics than girls. Boys who agreed with the statement that boys are better at mathematics had significantly higher scores on the mathematics test than their male peers who disagreed, while girls who agreed with this statement scored worse than their female peers who disagreed – suggesting a negative and inhibitory influence of such perceptions on achievement. 

A different example of this is shown from France where children had to memorize a geometric figure and then redo it. One group was told it was a geometry test and the other was told it was a drawing test. Girls who thought they were taking a drawing test performed significantly better than those who thought they were taking a geometry test.  

Gender stereotypes about STEM studies and professions are generated and perpetuated at home and in school. If girls and young women are more likely to suffer from mathematics anxiety than men, mothers may also be more anxious than fathers and more likely to communicate this to their children, particularly daughters. 

A lack of self-belief in terms of mathematics and science aptitude limits girls’ and women’s STEM aspirations, much more than their performance. A survey of more than 2,000 girls aged 15 to 19 in the Asia-Pacific region suggested that only 12% continued to study STEM subjects even though more than 50% were considering them when they were younger. The decisions were taken because of perceptions of gender bias, subject difficulty and lack of support from parents and teachers.  

A second data set from China with lower secondary school students showed equally revealing results. Before a mathematics test was administered, half of the students watched a video showing statistics that suggested men performed better than women in mathematics and were more likely to be in the top percentile of performance. The other half watched a video that never mentioned gender differences. Women in the first group did much worse than girls in the second group, implying the power of stereotypical influences. 

Teacher and textbook biases can negatively affect girls’ aspirations 

Female teachers can act as role models just as gender norms and stereotypes embedded in curricula and textbooks can also influence girls’ choices of what to study and what careers to pursue. One study found that teachers with subject-specific qualifications had a positive impact on test scores, and such impact was even higher for disadvantaged students and female students, while effects were even larger with a female teacher. The positive effects on student performance in science was roughly equivalent to an increase in weekly instruction time by two hours. One fifth of the effect was attributed to teacher confidence.

Teachers may not always have a positive influence, however. In Latin America, 8% to 20% of maths teachers reported believing that their subject is easier for boys. The latest OECD PISA 2022 found, for example, that male students reported greater teacher support than female and gender-diverse students. Moreover, learners in girls’ schools reported significantly lower teacher support than learners in co-educational or boys’ schools.  

Teachers may also harbour gender stereotypes which affect girls’ self-efficacy and their choices.  Teachers’ biases in favour of boys in science classes in Greece negatively affected the scores of girls. In Italy, female students scored worse on standardized tests when their mathematics teachers held strong implicit gender stereotypes. Studies in France and Israel found that teacher biases in favour of boys affected the performance of boys and girls on tests. Data from the Young Lives studies from 205 schools across two states in India suggest that when they are taught by a male teacher with stereotypical beliefs, girls are more likely to develop a negative attitude towards mathematics. A similar finding emerged from a study of grade 10 students in rural Limpopo, South Africa. 

Countries are trying to reduce gender divides

Globally, 68% of the 211 education systems reviewed as part of the PEER country profiles for the 2023 GEM Report have policies in place to support STEM education, although only half of these policies specifically support girls and women.

Many sub-Saharan African countries have such a focus, for example, including Rwanda (for example Girls in ICT and We Code) and Kenya (for example through ICT and STEM bootcamps). Efforts to bridge the large gender divide are also underway in other regions. For example in In India, the Department of Science and Technology implements the Women in Science and Engineering-KIRAN (WISE-KIRAN) programme to enhance female participation. During its G20 presidency, India launched the TechEquity platform to empower women with digital literacy skills. The STEM Stars campaign promotes science and technology education with a focus on training rural and marginalized women.

The roots of girls’ anxiety are multi-layered as this blog shows, requiring a multi-layered response in return. Communication with parents, training with teachers, reviews of teaching and learning materials, and other innovative programmes such as coding programmes, women empowerment centres or other could make a difference. Girls have no need to be anxious about mathematics. A proactive and consistent approach could help them overcome their concerns and fulfil their clear potential to pursue STEM subjects and careers later in life.

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Globally, women make up over half of all students who have enrolled in tertiary education, but they remain considerably less likely to choose STEM fields. In 2018–23, new UIS data released for the 2024 GEM Gender Report show that women made up only 35% of STEM graduates, showing no progress over the past ten years.

The data show us that, in 12 out of 122 countries, at most one in four graduates were female. Of those, 5 were in sub-Saharan Africa, but there were also high-income countries, such as Chile and Switzerland. In European and other high-income countries, the share of women in STEM fields of study drops heavily at the end of secondary school. In OECD countries, women make up only 31% of those entering STEM programmes, compared with over 75% in education, health and welfare (OECD, 2024). The proportion of female STEM graduates exceeds 40% in Greece, Iceland and Poland. At the opposite end, there were 9 countries where the majority of STEM graduates were female, notably Arab States, such as the Syrian Arab Republic and Tunisia. High shares of female STEM graduates in Arab countries coincide with lower mathematics anxiety.

For a subset of 50 countries with data for 2010–11 and 2020–21, there has been no change in the share of STEM graduates who are female. There are some notable examples of stagnation, such as Chile where the share has remained constant at 20%. The three countries with the largest fall in the share in this 10-year period were already well above average. The country with the largest fall among those with an initial position below average was Hungary (by five percentage points to 29%). At the opposite end, the three countries with the largest increase were North Macedonia (from 40% to 50%), the Netherlands (from just 21% to 31%) and Morocco (from 39% to 49%)

Bundling all STEM subjects together hides some variation. In 2016–18, women represented 28% of engineering, manufacturing and construction tertiary graduates and 30% of ICT tertiary graduates, but 57% of natural sciences, mathematics and statistics graduates (ranging from less than 20% in Bangladesh, Burkina Faso and Burundi to more than 80% in Bahrain, Maldives and the United Arab Emirates). In Saudi Arabia, 70% of students completing a degree in natural sciences, mathematics and statistics were women in 2019, compared to only 4% in engineering, manufacturing and construction. In Latin America and the Caribbean, women represented at most 40% of the STEM graduates but made up only 31% in engineering, manufacturing and construction and 18% in ICT.

As young women are more likely to graduate from university in the majority of countries, however, the share of females in the total number of STEM graduates is slightly misleading. A closer look at the shares of females and males who are STEM graduates shows that the gender gap in tertiary field choices is starker. Only 15% of young women end up being STEM graduates, compared to 35% of young men. Countries with very large absolute gaps in excess of 30 percentage points include Finland, Germany and Sweden. Countries with very large relative gaps include Belgium, Latvia and Spain. In contrast, Mauritania, Samoa and the United Republic of Tanzania are among the few countries with no gap.

The gender gaps in those studying STEM degrees translate into gender gaps in those pursuing STEM careers, as the 2024 GEM Gender Report, Technology on her terms, describes. It shows that women held less than 25% of science, engineering and ICT jobs in 2022. It has also been estimated that women occupy just over one in five technology positions in companies. Similar disparities are found among STEM teachers. The 2018 Teaching and Learning International Survey results showed that 31% of lower secondary school male teachers teach STEM subjects compared to 25% of female teachers. Large gender gaps were observed in Denmark (14 percentage points), Brazil (10 percentage points) and Slovenia (8 percentage points).

The 2024 GEM Gender report recommends that female leadership in artificial intelligence and technology development be promoted in order to assure gender-sensitive digital transformation and address gender stereotypes in algorithms.  This includes investing in programmes that can empower girls and young women to study in STEM fields and to pursue STEM careers in order to encourage non-discrimination and gender balance in technological design.

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While digital technology offers new opportunities for teaching and learning, it also comes with risks related to privacy, safety and well-being.  The internet – including its use as part of education – exposes users to misuse of their personal data, invasion of privacy, abuse, theft of identity, offensive messages and images, cyberbullying, scams, fake news and misinformation.  

The 2024 GEM Gender Report shows that girls are particularly vulnerable to some of these risks which can lead to decreased self-esteem, anxiety, and depression, negatively impacting their well-being. And the latter is important for learning, with consistent evidence showing the causal relationship between higher levels of emotional, behavioural, social and school well-being and academic achievement. 

Digital media strains mental health and well-being 

A growing body of research underscores the impact of digital media on the mental health of girls. The 2021/22 Health Behaviour in School-aged Children study by the World Health Organization reveals a concerning trend: girls are twice as likely as boys to feel frequently lonely, with 28% reporting this experience. 

Digital platforms, particularly social media, have become central to the lives of many. However, the impact on adolescents, especially girls, can be profound and distressing, exacerbating well-being issues. Platforms, like Instagram and TikTok, with their algorithm- and image-based content, often expose girls to harmful materials that promote unrealistic body images and unhealthy behaviours, negatively affecting their self-esteem and body image. For example, according to the 2019 Global Burden of Disease study, girls are twice as likely as boys to suffer an eating disorder in their lives. A review of young people aged 10 to 24 years in 17 countries has highlighted the association between the use of social media and body image concerns, eating disorders and poor mental health.  The Center for Countering Digital Hate reports that TikTok’s algorithm targets teenagers with body image and mental health content every 39 seconds, with content related to suicide every 2 minutes and 36 seconds, and with content related to eating disorders every 8 minutes, potentially exacerbating mental health issues among impressionable viewers.  Amnesty International highlights that one in two videos displayed after spending 5 to 6 hours on the platform are ‘mental health–related and potentially harmful’. 

Studies also indicate that social media can reinforce harmful gender norms as they do not only reflect but also amplify inequalities shaping user experiences in ways that often perpetuate negative stereotypes and behaviours. Moreover, the addictive nature of platforms like TikTok has been criticized for distracting students, making concentration more challenging.  

Technology and school-related gender-based violence: A significant global issue 

Because of the increasing presence of digital technology in schools, digital environments can become arenas for gender-based violence also in educational settings. The rise of digital technology has facilitated several forms of sexual violence such as online solicitation, coercive sexting, and cyberdating violence – often making it easier to perpetrate such abuses without immediate consequences. Notably, image-based sexual abuse, significantly impacts girls and LGBTQ youth, undermining their safety and educational rights. 

Cyberflashing where individuals receive unsolicited explicit images via digital devices, is also a prevalent form of harassment. Studies indicate that a disturbing number of school-aged girls are victims. In Canada, one-third of undergraduate females reported exposure to some sort of digital violence. Image-based sexual abuse and cyberflashing were prevalent, with significant psychological impacts on the victims. In the UK, 88% of girls in schools reported receiving unwanted explicit images. And in Belgium, more than half of the girls aged 15 to 25 in a survey reported being victims of cyberflashing. This form of abuse extends to AI-generated harassment, like the creation and distribution of deepfake pornographic images, which has seen a dramatic increase. Notable incidents in Brazil and Spain involved deepfake images of female students being circulated among peers.  

Cyberbullying is another significant concern disproportionately affecting girls. OECD data reveals that 12% of 15-year-old girls reported being cyberbullied compared to 8% of boys. In Saudi Arabia, nearly half of the female university students experienced digital harassment. Boys, while also victims, are more frequently the perpetrators of cyberbullying. Studies in India and China echo this gender disparity, with boys more likely to engage in cyberbullying.  

Strong and effective legal frameworks and education responses are needed  

The need to protect children and youth against online digital risks is gaining momentum worldwide. International conventions, such as the 2011 Istanbul Convention, provide foundational legal instruments for combating cyberbullying and online violence, emphasizing the need for comprehensive policies to protect women and girls online and criminalizing offensive actions and behaviour.  

In response to these growing concerns, countries are also developing legal frameworks and educational programs to protect students, particularly girls. Initiatives range from the comprehensive guidelines in Portugal on teaching about gender and internet safety to the Kids Online Safety Act in the United States, which demands safer online environments for children and adolescents. In Italy, a 2017 law stipulated preventive actions and a strategy of attention, protection and education for children considering both their situation as victims and perpetrators. Slovenia has run projects to raise awareness about online dating violence among youth for the successful prevention of and protection from online violence and harassment of girls and women. 

About 1 in 4 countries have banned mobile phones in school with laws or policies. Some countries ban phones for younger students (e.g. Finland and France) and others for their older peers (e.g. the Netherlands). Some have blocked the access to specific social media or software in schools. 

Education systems worldwide are evolving to integrate digital safety into their curricula and implementing comprehensive cybersecurity training. The aim is to create safer educational environments educating students and educators about the risks and responsibilities associated with digital technology. For example, Cambodia and Viet Nam have included lessons on preventing sexual abuse in their school programs.  

Parental guidance is also essential 

The World Health Organization and various educational policies advocate for reduced screen time and increased monitoring of digital engagement by young users. Parents and educators need to be equipped to guide children in understanding and managing their interactions with the digital space. This includes setting boundaries on screen time, discussing the content they encounter online, and fostering skills in critical thinking and digital literacy to help them discern and manage online risks and to combat misinformation and potential online harm.  

The call to action is clear 

Empowering young girls with the knowledge, tools, and support they need to thrive both online and offline is essential.  

As the 2024 GEM Gender Report  recommendation argues, it has become urgent to protect education from these negative influences of technology. Addressing the intersection of gender violence and digital technology in schools is crucial for ensuring safe educational environments for all students, especially girls. Educators, parents, policymakers, and students must work together to develop effective strategies to mitigate these risks. Strengthening legal protections, enhancing educational curricula and fostering supportive school communities are essential steps toward combating digital gender violence. Informed policies, engaged parenting, and responsive education systems can help to make digital environments in and outside schools safer and more inclusive. By understanding the impacts of digital technology on well-being and taking active steps to mitigate risks, we can help to build a better future for all students.  

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Exclusion is rife for millions

Out of school rates had been declining but at a slow pace but in 2022 the out-of-school population increased for the first time, reaching 250 million. The number out of school has barely changed in sub-Saharan Africa since 1990.  And such numbers are likely to be underestimated, as data are difficult to capture in areas of the world affected by crises, such as Sudan, Palestine, South Sudan, Burkina Faso and Myanmar.

Identity, background and ability continue to dictate education opportunities. The new Her Education Our Future Factsheet showed that, while the world has achieved gender parity in primary and secondary education gross enrolment ratios on average, extreme gender exclusion exists in some corners of the world: 80% of school-aged Afghan females were out of school.

Disadvantages can stack up to exacerbate exclusion, as the WIDE database shows. Girls’ disadvantage is exacerbated due to location, for instance. In Mozambique, there are 73 young women in school for every 100 young men. But while there is gender parity in urban areas, there are 53 young women in school for every 100 young men in rural areas.  Disparity is even more exacerbated in terms of wealth. In Côte d’Ivoire, there are 72 young women in school – but only 22 poor young women – for every 100 young men.  New WIDE data based on the Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys shows that children with a disability are 7 percentage points less likely than children without functional difficulties to complete primary school.

Data from the 2021 PIRLS reading assessment show that in upper-middle- and high-income countries, children who speak at home the language they are taught in school are 14% more likely to read with understanding than those who do not at the end of primary. At the end of lower secondary, data from the 2022 PISA show that adolescents speaking the language of instruction at home were over 40% more likely to be able to read with understanding compared to those who did not. In 2023, Slovakia’s parliament failed to adopt an amendment to the School Act, which would take steps to address discrimination against Roma children.

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) learners have seen walls rise up in education settings in the United States, where 7 states have introduced ‘don’t say gay’ laws for curricula since our 2020 Report was released. There have been protests against LGBTQ curriculum content in Canada.

During COVD-19 at least half a billion students worldwide (31%) could not be reached by any form of remote learning, rising to 72% of the poorest.

But there are signs of improvement

In the face of these worrying signs, many countries continue to demonstrate commitment to the ‘all means all’ approach outlined in the 2020 GE Report.  Since the release of the 2020 GEM Report, 8 more countries have ratified the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, bringing the total to 164 signatories. Another 36 additional countries have now legally recognized national sign languages since 2020.

The radical inclusion policy in Sierra Leone, is one example, as is the first ever strategy on inclusive and special education introduced in Austria in 2021 and the new guidelines on equitable and inclusive education in line with the New Education Policy in India in 2020. The state of New South Wales in Australia developed an Inclusive Education Policy, which declares that “all students, regardless of disability, ethnicity, socio-economic status, nationality, language, gender, sexual orientation or faith, can access and fully participate in learning, alongside their similar aged peers, supported by reasonable adjustments and teaching strategies tailored to meet their individual needs”.

The PEER country profiles compiled for the 2020 GEM Report showed that a quarter of countries had laws making provisions for educating children with disabilities in separate settings. Some have changed their stance on this front as well. In 2022, a new decree by the government of the Flemish Community in Belgium enabled learners with learning disabilities and special educational needs to be able to follow lessons in mainstream education as far as possible, with extra support.

Denmark began a new special education training programme for teachers in 2022. Uganda began training teachers language resilience in refugee areas in 2023. Japan also tackled language barriers after a survey showed that 19,000 primary or lower secondary school-age children of foreign nationalities in Japan do not attend school at all, introducing a new policy in 2020 to improve Japanese language education.

In the province of Manitoba in Canada, a new policy was introduced in 2022, entitled Mamàhtawisiwin: The wonder we are born with, bringing indigenous elders into the classroom to help indigenous students succeed in school. Bulgaria introduced a new inclusive education strategy for learners, including Roma, who our regional report showed suffered particular exclusion.

The growth of technology has brought opportunities with one hand as it has brought challenges with another, as a new advocacy brief being launched on the subject this week will show. But there is no doubt that inclusive technologies have major advantages in that they support accessibility for students with disability. The 2023 GEM Report found that 87% say that accessible technology devices, including smartphones and tablets, were replacing traditional assistive tools most or all of the time. Digitizing textbooks can also make them more accessible. Over 92 countries have also now ratified the 2013 Marrakech Treaty allowing reproduction of published works in accessible formats for people who are print-disabled.

This is clearly a marathon, not a sprint. Achieving full inclusion and meeting every learner’s needs will take time. We hope you will join us in celebrating countries that have recognized the benefits of an inclusive approach to education and calling on others to follow suit.

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