Gender Gap In Education

In figure 1, we can see that among female who are aged 15 or above, 76.5% of female population receive secondary education and above , while male account for 82.9% in 2012. In contrast with the statistics in 2002, it has shown that the total number of women and men that have received secondary education and above in 2012 increased by 29.0% and 15.7% respectively as against 2002. The percentage difference between female and male population receiving secondary education and above has narrowed significantly between 2002 and 2012.

The aforementioned may demonstrate a narrowing of gender gap in education. However, study of the school process shows a more complex issue to be discussed. In areas where public policy fail to cover (e.g. structure of

2. Employment

Since the early days in Hong Kong, female have played a crucial role in Hong Kong’s economy, their diligent workforce has contributed to the economic prosperity of Hong Kong. However, owing to traditional view, female are considered as ‘reserve army’ in the labour market. Even in nowadays, the situation has not much been improved, where gender segregation leads to the problem. (Chiu & Lee, 1997; Levin, 1991; Ngo, 1990).

Table1. Female-to-male income ratio by occupational group, selected years from 1996 to 2009

Table 1 provides information about the female-to-male income ratio in broad occupational groups. Owing to economic restructuring, more and more women have been entering low-skilled and poorly paid occupations.As there are astrong competition for these jobs among female, employers were able to keep their remuneration low. In addition, Lee et al. (2009) found that in clerical, craft and technical, and elementary occupations, there was a higher level of gender discrimination (as indicated by a large unexplained portion

However, the progress is still not significant and the reasons behind are complex but have much to do with gender stereotypes and cultural reasons. Gender segregation in terms of educational and working occupational role, the need to circumscribe careers in order to fulfill family obligations and the Glass Ceiling effect has undoubtedly placed a burden for the leap of women in Hong Kong. The problem of gender segregation still remains to be a problem that requires immediate attention. In terms of working occupation, the implementation of minimum wage law is not enough to protect female workers from being exploited, other measures e.g. vocational training and short-term employment subsidies may help to alleviate the