The chart illustrates the proportion of men and women who obtained various types of post-school qualifications in Australia in 1999. Overall, while the figure for men was higher in skilled vocational diplomas, postgraduate diplomas and master’s degrees, undergraduate diplomas and bachelor’s degrees were obtained mainly by women. Notably, there was by far the greatest difference between the two genders in skilled vocational diplomas, whereas bachelor’s degree had only a marginal gap.
Focusing on categories in which men dominated, males accounted for 90%, compared with females (10%) in skilled vocational diplomas. Men recorded a higher figure for postgraduate diplomas, at 70%, which was significantly greater than women at 30%. In master’s degrees, the proportion of women (40%) was also lower than that of men (60%).
Regarding female-dominant categories, including undergraduate diplomas and bachelor’s degrees, males accounted for 35% of qualification holders, which was half that of females (70%) in the former, while the gap between men (45%) and women (55%) in bachelor’s degrees was far smaller compared with the remaining qualifications.
