International Gender Differences in Civic Knowledge and Attitudes: Implications and Ways Forward

• In Event: Education for Civic Engagement and Justice: Leadership, Identity, and Learning Across Contexts

Proposal

This paper examines gender differences in students’ civic knowledge and attitudes toward globally important social topics. It uses data from IEA’s International Civic and Citizenship Education Study (ICCS) 2022, which assessed the civic knowledge of eighth-grade students across 22 countries. The findings from ICCS 2022 indicate a notable gender gap in civic knowledge in most participating countries, with boys scoring lower on average than girls in all such cases. In addition, students exhibited strong positive attitudes toward gender equality, although boys were significantly less likely than girls on average to express support for it. The disparity in support for gender equality was larger than for any other indicator. In most countries, and on average internationally, boys were significantly less likely than girls to express positive attitudes about environmental protection and concern about global environmental threats. In the event of national emergencies in democratic systems, boys in half of the participating countries were significantly more likely than girls to accept restrictions, such as prohibiting large gatherings, imposing travel restrictions, or identifying people whose behavior might put others at risk. These gender differences in attitudes present challenges for building more democratic, equitable, and sustainable societies worldwide.

These findings have certain important implications. If higher levels of civic knowledge, as well as strong commitments to gender equity and environmental protection are considered positive outcomes across the student population, then reducing the extent of boys’ substantial underachievement in these domains would be a constructive way to make progress toward these goals. Furthermore, the large disparity in concern for the environment and environmental protection between boys and girls, on average, is worrisome given the increasingly negative effects of climate change. Furthermore, the results from ICCS 2022 suggest that efforts to improve commitment to environmental protection and gender equity should include a focus on improving boys’ environmental awareness and attitudes regarding gender equality and democracy.

If schools are partly responsible for imparting civic knowledge, then education specialists and practitioners, policymakers, and societies more generally should be concerned by these results. The finding that boys possess lower civic knowledge on average has implications for the functioning of democracies, as ensuring that all students gain civics knowledge strengthens the democratic system by creating a more informed and engaged citizenry.

Authors

• Michel Welmond, Consultant

• Aidan Clerkin

• Laura Gregory, The World Bank