Abstract:

According to the Report of gender parity, published by the World Economic Forum in 2013, Romania is ranked 70 out of 136 countries surveyed in the Index Global gender parity, which analyzes the differences between men and women in relation to four fundamental categories: opportunities and economic participation, education, health and survival, and political empowerment. In the field of education, gender proves to be an extremely important dimension, from the early forms of instruction, within the family and the community, to the educational systems of contemporary society. The present study aims at identifying gender differences as emphasized by the academic choices of young Romanians. From a methodological viewpoint, the research is based on the analysis of documents produced by institutions of higher education regarding the number and type of students enrolled on the three levels of study: Bachelor, Master and Doctoral as well as the Eurobarometer reports on gender parity in our country. Assuming that the professional aspirations of young people reflect expectations and cultural prejudices of genre characteristic for their community of origin, the second dimension of our research aims at identifying the factors that influence academic choices of girls and boys and analysing the gender stereotypes revealed by the contemporary Romanian society, from this point of view.

Keywords:

Gender differences, gender stereotypes, academic achievement, Romanian higher education institutions.