One of the most common approaches to the issue of gender gaps is that women still have too many obstacles to catch up with men in terms of education and work.

However, a Financial Times investigation shows that something has been happening with the trends in these issues in recent decades. Figures show that in a sample of developed countries, women now have a higher participation in university education and the labor force, surpassing even men. This is the case in the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Korea, Norway, and Spain.

The data is surprising: “Across the developed world, girls and young women have been pulling ahead of boys and young men in education for several decades, with much larger proportions going on to attend university than their male counterparts,” the Financial Times article explains.

And when looking at the participation of women and men between 20 and 24 years of age in the labor market, there are several cases in which women are in the majority or very close to surpassing men.

“Much less appreciated than the widening tertiary education gap is the fact that in several rich countries young women are now more likely to be in work than young men. The UK joined this group in 2020, and the female employment rate lead among 20-24s has since widened to three percentage points. The crossover is yet to happen in the US, but young women’s employment rate deficit has shrunk from almost 10 percentage points in 2006 to a single point last year,” according to the article signed by John Burn-Murdoch.

This seems to be a favorable trend, but there is a downside: the burdens of the home care economy are still mostly in the hands of women. So now they are not only responsible for a large part of these tasks, but they are also working and pursuing higher education.

The gender gaps are still a problem, without a doubt. The need for home care work to be recognized as part of household income and for mechanisms to be sought for men to participate more in it are part of the solution.

In no way can it be concluded that the problem is that women work and study more. The issue is still in the hands of men, who must find ways to compensate and help to make the burden more equitable.

Still, young women are taking advantage of the labor market and education. That, in itself, is great news.