Breaking barriers: Gender disparities in high school performance, 1813--1929

Christian Møller Dahl, Nick Ford, Kristin Ranestad, Paul Sharp and Christian Emil Westermann
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Christian Møller Dahl: University of Southern Denmark
Nick Ford: University of Southern Denmark
Kristin Ranestad: University of Oslo
Paul Sharp: University of Southern Denmark
Christian Emil Westermann: University of Southern Denmark

No 300, Working Papers from European Historical Economics Society (EHES)

Abstract: When women first entered Norwegian high school examinations in the late nineteenth century, did they outperform men, as they do today? Using a new dataset of 41,585 graduates from 1813 to 1929, we show that early female students initially achieved better grades than their male peers. However, this advantage disappeared within a generation as access expanded and co-education became institutionalised. After accounting for study programme, socioeconomic background, and type of education, we find rapid convergence in performance and no evidence of adverse effects on male students. The results suggest that contemporary female outperformance is not historically persistent, but a product of more recent institutional and social change.

Keywords: grades; academic achievement; education; human capital; gender (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: N33 N34 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026-05
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