ABSTRACT
This chapter compares the school performance of boys and girls and focuses on the transition from school to work. People expect everyone to enter school equally and to leave school with a certain degree, diploma, and certificate, that determines future possibilities and opportunities in the labour market. In the last year of secondary school about 30 per cent of the girls show a lag in their school career, compared with almost 45 per cent among the boys. The chapter argues that something odd is happening in the transition from school to work, as the gender differences in performance in education seem to shift after entry into the labour market. It is clear that women perform worse than men in terms of job prestige, not so much at the high educational levels, but very much so at the lower levels. Controlling for family formation, the differences in job prestige level between men and women have not completely disappeared.
