2 - Gender and Literacy - Education Counts

The Adult Literacy and Life Skills (ALL) Survey: Gender, Ethnicity and Literacy

This report is the third in a series of four that investigate the initial results of the ALL survey. It presents an overview of New Zealanders’ skills in relation to gender and ethnicity, and any changes since 1996.

Author: Paul Satherley & Elliot Lawes [Research Division, Ministry of Education]
Date Published: September 2008

2 - Gender and Literacy

How did the distributions of literacy skills for women change between 1996 and 2006?
How did the distributions of literacy skills for men change between 1996 and 2006?
How did the distribution of literacy skills differ between men and women?

This section examines these questions.

Prose literacy and gender

Prose literacy is the ability to read and understand continuous texts (such as news stories, editorials, brochures and instruction manuals). Prose literacy skill (in English) was measured by both the IALS and ALL surveys, and its distribution among the adult women and men of New Zealand is shown in Figure 2.1.

For both women and men, average prose literacy skill remained relatively stable between 1996 and 2006. However, the proportion of people with very low and very high prose literacy skill decreased.

Figure 2.1: Prose literacy and gender, IALS and ALL

Note:
Scores are rounded to the nearest multiple of 5

Figure 2.1 shows that for both women and men there was little change in mean prose literacy skill, with women remaining stable at around 280 and men moving slightly from 270 to 275. Figure 2.1 also shows that:

for both women and men there was a substantial reduction in the spread of scores (for example, the range between the 5th percentile and the 95th percentile shrank substantially between 1996 and 2006)
for both men and women the 25th and 75th percentiles remained relatively stable between 1996 and 2006.
when compared with men, prose literacy was a domain of relative strength for women (almost all statistics for women were higher than the corresponding statistics for men).

Document literacy and gender

Document literacy is the ability to read and understand discontinuous texts (such as charts, maps, tables, job applications, payroll forms and timetables). Document literacy skill was measured by both the IALS and ALL surveys, and its distribution among the adult women and men of New Zealand is shown in Figure 2.2.

For both women and men, average document literacy skill rose and the proportion of people with very low document literacy skill decreased.

Figure 2.2: Document literacy and gender, IALS and ALL

Note:
Scores are rounded to the nearest multiple of 5.

Figure 2.2 shows that for both women and men, mean document literacy skill rose from 270 to 280. Figure 2.2 also shows that:

for both women and men there was a substantial increase in the 5th percentile (the 5th percentile for women moved from around 155 to 190 and the 5th percentile for men from around 150 to 180)
for both women and men the 95th percentile remained relatively stable (moving only from 360 to 355 for women and remaining at 360 for men)
for both men and women the 75th percentile remained relatively stable but the 25th percentile increased.

Numeracy and gender

Numeracy is the ability to read and process mathematical and numeric information in diverse situations. Numeracy skill was measured in the ALL survey only and its distribution among the adult women and men of New Zealand is shown in Figure 2.3.

Women had relative strength in prose literacy and men had relative strength in numeracy.

Figure 2.3: Numeracy and gender, ALL only

Note:
Scores are rounded to the nearest multiple of 5.

Figure 2.3 shows that the mean numeracy score for men (around 275) was greater than that for women (around 265). Figure 2.3 also shows that the spread of numeracy scores for men (ranging from a 5th percentile of around 170 to a 95th percentile of around 365) was wider than that for women (ranging from a 5th percentile of around 175 to a 95th percentile of around 350). The main gender difference is that a higher proportion of men than women have high numeracy skills. The low end of the numeracy distribution is similar for men and women.

Problem-solving and gender

Problem-solving is the ability to reason and think analytically in situations where no routine procedure exists. Problem-solving skill was measured in the ALL survey only, and its distribution among the adult women and men of New Zealand is shown in Figure 2.4.

The distributions of problem-solving skill were very similar for men and women.

Figure 2.4: Problem-solving and gender, ALL only

Note:
Scores are rounded to the nearest multiple of 5.

Figure 2.4 shows that for women and men the distributions of problem-solving skill are very similar. They have similar 95th percentiles (around 355), 75th percentiles (around 310), and means (around 275). The 25th percentile for women (around 245) is slightly higher than that for men (around 240), as is the 5th percentile (around 190 for women and 180 for men).

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