Debates about gender and schooling have taken a surprising turn in the past decade. After years of concern that girls were being shortchanged in male-dominated schools, especially in math and science, there has grown a rising chorus of voices worrying about whether boys are the ones in peril. With young women making up close to 60 percent of…

At the University of Sydney (Australia) the undergraduate dropout rate is about 8 percent, with a rate of 10 percent for freshmen. The proportion is unevenly distributed across subject areas, with that in the arts and economics higher than that in the professional schools. The present study concentrates on the group of students who withdraw from…

Examines changes in the characteristics and outcomes of school dropouts in Australia during the 1980s. Schools recruited more broadly among females during this period, which weakened the association between dropping out and social background. For males, social differences remained entrenched. Both genders experienced steep increases in…

Gender disparity in education has usually been experienced as disadvantaging girls. Although this continues to be the case in many places, the phenomenon of boys' underachievement--both in terms of participation and performance--has also become an issue in a number of countries. This book reviews the research on boys' underachievement and presents…