The charts compare the popularity of part-time and full-time further education courses in the UK among male and female students over a 20-year period.
Overall, it can be clearly seen that numbers in general increased for both genders studying part-time. The number of women in full-time education also rose, but this was not true for men, whose numbers decreased.
Looking more closely at the figures for part-time education, there was a noticeable increase in the number of women in part-time education at the start of the period, jumping from just under 50 to almost 200 in a decade, and finishing at the same level as male students a decade later. For men, the increase was more gradual, going up by about 50 per decade.
As for the full-time students, men outnumbered women in 1970 (1000 men compared with just 700 women) but then the trend was downwards, falling to about 800 in 1980 before recovering in 1990 when there were about 900 male students on full-time courses. Meanwhile, numbers for women increased significantly, overtaking the men by 1990 (1100 women as opposed to 900 men).
To conclude, despite differences between the genders in terms of numbers, it is obvious that full-time education was by far the most popular choice for both men and women throughout the whole period.