Analysis provided by: Soraya Pascoe, Legal Expert on Gender.

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Discrimination in the field of education and development is governed by the Sex Discrimination Act 1975.

It is unlawful to discriminate on the grounds of gender in education at compulsory school age (under 19 years) or at higher education level, such as a university where the state provides assistance. There are exceptions to the Sex Discrimination Act being applicable in education. One exception is that a single sex schools are lawful, although it is unlawful to discriminate on curricular provision within those establishments.

As some schools in the United Kingdom are formed on the basis of charitable trusts, they are also excluded from the Sex Discrimination Act where for particular religious reasons a gender distinction is made in a given circumstance.

Likewise while education is compulsory in the United Kingdom, attending school is not. Section 7 of the Education Act 1996 gives parents the responsibility to ensure their child receives a suitable education. It is for that reason that an increasing number of parents in the 'United Kingdom' disenchanted with state education provision are choosing to educate their children by themselves. No obligation is enforced to provide any standard syllabus. This of course means that while many children benefit by enhanced tuition, there is a potential for gender discrimination in the terms of education chosen by particular parents. There are no legislative safe guards to ensure children receive gender neutral education once outside of the state school system. Within the state school system however the national curriculum is designed to provide a balanced education including gender neutral syllabi and indeed gender awareness is adopted throughout a variety of school subjects.

Generally in the 'UK female school students are achieving higher grades than boys although in the sciences as well as computer studies, design and technology, geography, physical education the number of girls taking these subjects is lower than the number of boys.

Government initiatives to promote female entry into the scientific and technological industries include the joint co-operation between the Department of Education and skills and the Department of Trade and industry. Here work placements and guarantee training schemes with financial incentives have been developed specifically for female candidates to enable their participation in traditionally male dominated fields.

Progress in gender equality has been made in higher education whereby the ratio of 2:1 male students in comparison with female students 1970-1971 has now changed to the extent that 55 per cent of enrolled students are female, completely equal to the demographic gender representation.

This has been partly achieved by the concept of life long learning and the development of access to higher education courses for mature students, particularly women with few formal educational achievements and with flexible learning systems. In fact women account for 73 per cent of access students. Without any national legalisation in place, the vast majority of further education and higher education establishments have had the foresight to introduce nursery provision for student parents.

However, gender inequality still persists at scientific research institutes where only 19 per cent of fellows at university are women, compared with 34 per cent men.

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