[999Today, 22nd September 2006]  

Girls who attend single-sex schools go on to earn higher wages than those in mixed classes, a UK study has revealed.

Researchers at London University's Institute of Education followed almost 13,000 people born in 1958.

They found girls educated in single-sex schools were much more likely to study subjects not traditionally associated with their gender than those who went to mixed schools.

Girls in girls' schools were more likely to study A-levels in science and maths, while boys in boys' schools were more likely to have taken modern languages and English at A-level.

The report also found that girls and boys in single-sex education had more confidence in their ability to do well in these subjects.

The pattern carried through to university, with women from girls' schools more likely than co-educated women to gain qualifications in subjects typically dominated by men and to go on to earn higher salaries in their jobs.

Researcher Dr Alice Sullivan said: "Single-sex schools seemed more likely to encourage students to pursue academic paths according to their talents rather than their gender, whereas more gender-stereotyped choices were made in co-educational schools.

"This suggests that co-educational schools need to examine the ways in which they have, probably unwittingly, enforced powerful gender stereotypes on both girls and boys."

However, single-sex education did not appear to improve exam performance.

Students from girls' schools did only slightly better in exams than those in co-educational establishments, while boys performed no better at all.

Researcher Professor Diana Leonard said: "Although having been to a single-sex school is not significantly linked to a gender atypical occupation, girls from single-sex schools do get higher wages in later life.

"This could be because they are carrying out more technical or scientific roles even within female-dominated jobs, for example, becoming science teachers rather than French teachers, or because they have learned to be more self-confident in negotiating their wages and salaries."

Dr Sullivan added: "Our research emphatically does not support the suggestion that achievement is higher in single-sex schools."

Other findings showed that boys in boys' schools were more likely to dislike school than boys in co-educational schools, but both sexes were less likely to truant in single-sex schools.

The study was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council.