Sex Difference in Education: A Comparative Study of Ireland and Switzerland

Gender-based inequalities continue to persist in western societies, despite measures taken to promote the participation of women in education, employment and politics on an equal basis with men. This is puzzling, from a theoretical viewpoint, because of the expectation, deriving from modernization theory, that modernity would bring with it a major decline in sex-differentiation and sex-typing of roles, attitudes and identities. This topic is taken up in the context of a comparative study of the educational systems of Ireland and Switzerland, which focuses on the role of the school in the reproduction of the sex-role systems.