Closing the gender gap

Students from different social classes perform equally well and the type of school which students attended has no bearing on academic success either. On the whole ethnicity is not a major factor in students’ achievements either. These findings contradict the commonly held belief that some students fail because, as members of minority groups, they do not ‘fit in’ to the prevailing ethos of an imagined dominant group of male students from independent schools.

So what causes the gender gap? The single most important factor separating men from women is their approach to learning and examinations. In general the approach of women focuses on breadth of understanding in arts subjects and an incremental approach to learning in science subjects. Male students are more aggressive and argumentative in their approach - in the arts this takes the form of ‘Cambridge Answer’, a ‘bold affirmation of a particular view’ and in the sciences this expresses itself in a tendency to get stuck into problem-solving without feeling inhibited by a lack of understanding of fundamental concepts.

But, given this general difference, why do women perform as well as men in some subjects, such as Law, but not in others, such as Mathematics, and why do women sometimes outperform men in other subjects again, such as Chemistry and Classics? There are no simple answers to these questions. The study reveals a complex web of factors which influence academic performance, ranging from how well the transition from school to university is managed, to the students’ social and personal experiences and their self-perceptions. But, crucially, it would seem that in certain subjects there is both greater recognition of women students’ approach to learning and more encouragement and support for them in adopting strategies which will help them excel in their exams.

The report confirms the important contribution made by Directors of Studies and Supervisors. Women students thrive when they are given constructive feedback on their work and clear advice about what is expected from them and how they can improve. Supportive and encouraging relationships with members of staff were the strongest contributing factor to their academic success in the eyes of many students.

The research was commissioned by the Joint Committee on Academic Performance, a body set up by the University to give impetus and focus to consideration of factors underlying the performance of students in Tripos examinations. The Education Committee will now be considering how to take forward the findings of the report.