The bar chart illustrates the number of men and women in further education in Britain during the academic years 1970/71, 1980/81, and 1990/91. The data is categorized by whether they were studying full-time or part-time.
Overall, part-time education was consistently more popular than full-time education for both genders across all three periods. Additionally, while the number of men in part-time education remained relatively stable, there was a noticeable increase in the number of women in part-time education over the years. Full-time education showed a more gradual upward trend for both men and women.
In 1970/71, approximately 1,000,000 men were enrolled in part-time education, and this figure remained nearly constant by 1990/91. For women, however, the number of part-time participants started at around 700,000 in 1970/71 and rose steadily, reaching over 1,100,000 by 1990/91, surpassing the figures for men.
In terms of full-time education, the numbers were significantly lower compared to part-time education. In 1970/71, fewer than 100,000 men were enrolled in full-time courses, but this number gradually increased to just above 200,000 by 1990/91. The trend for women was similar: the initial figure in 1970/71 was slightly above 50,000, which increased to nearly 200,000 by 1990/91.
To summarize, while part-time education maintained higher participation overall, women’s involvement in further education, both part-time and full-time, saw substantial growth over the period analyzed.