Closing Doors: Exploring Gender and Subject Choice in Schools

A statistical study exploring the links between gender and subject choice.

This report uses the National Pupil Database to look at progression to a number of gendered A-level subjects from co-educational schools.

Main points include:

• Nearly half of co-educational state-funded schools (49%) are actually making the gender imbalance in these subjects worse
• The small number of schools (19%) that send on relatively more girls to do A-level physics also have a smaller gender imbalance in progression to other subjects
• It follows that whatever factors limit the progression of girls to A-level physics in a school are likely to depend on the whole school environment