Contextualising Gender Gaps: The Moderating Role of Social Context on Gender Educational Inequality in European Primary Schools

  1. Bianchi, Daniel 1
  2. Cabrera, Leopoldo 1
  3. Sicilia, Gabriela 1
  1. 1 Universidad de La Laguna
    info
    Universidad de La Laguna

    San Cristobal de La Laguna, España

    ROR https://ror.org/01r9z8p25

    Geographic location of the organization Universidad de La Laguna
Journal:
Gender Issues

ISSN: 1098-092X,  1936-4717

Year of publication: 2025

Volume: 42

Issue: 3

Type: Article

DOI: 10.1007/S12147-025-09360-0 SCOPUS: 2-s2.0-105004474392 WoS: WOS:001484982600001 GOOGLE SCHOLAR lock_openOpen access editor

More publications in: Gender Issues

Abstract

Despite trends of improvement in girls’ educational achievement over the last decades, gender gaps in mathematics to the detriment of girls persist in most European countries, while boys continue to perform worse in reading. The aim of this paper is to understand how different social contexts moderate gender gaps in mathematics and reading in primary school. Using data from the international assessments TIMSS-2019 and PIRLS-2021, we compare gender ratios across the performance distribution in 27 European countries. Then, we estimate multilevel linear regression models to identify the moderators of the gender slopes at the student, school and country levels. Our results confirm that the degree of gender equality is positively related to girls’ maths performance, even in a relatively restricted context such as the European one. Only school and country average reading achievement is associated with better boys’ relative performance and a closing reading gender gap. Finally, we detect contextual effects of socioeconomic status (SES) on the gender gap in mathematics at the school and country levels. Possible mechanisms of these contextual effects are discussed.

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Funding information

Funders

  • Universidad de La Laguna
  • Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities-State Research Agency (Agencia Estatal de Investigación) and ERDF/EU
    • PID2023-147616NB-I00
  • Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities
    • FPU23/02129
  • Universidad de la Laguna

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