Way to top an obstacle race for girls

Women may be leading the country and outstripping boys in school achievement, but there are still barriers preventing all girls from reaching the top, research has shown.

Senior lecturer at Massey University College of Education Dr Margaret Walshaw found that while more women than men complete tertiary studies, girls from lower socio-economic backgrounds are still facing major barriers to academic success.

Girls from higher decile schools were swelling the number of female achievers while girls from the lower decile schools tended to fill a substantial proportion of the low achievers.

Dr Walshaw is conducting a study of girls in years five to seven (aged 10 to 12) and their mothers from a high decile private all-girls school and a co-educational ethnically mixed low decile school. In the first part she looked at the girls' educational and vocational aspirations and those their mothers had for them.

She found that mothers from higher socio-economic areas had the resources to help their daughters succeed while those from low decile schools were likely to trust the school to do the job.

- NZPA