Literacy: Females
(asked on 4th February 2016) - View Source
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the impact of poor literacy skills on women relative to men.
The Skills for Life Survey 2011 showed no notable difference between the levels of literacy of men and women:
Literacy levels by gender (%) | |||
Literacy Level | Gender | ||
All | Male | Female | |
Entry Level 1 or below | 5 | 5 | 5 |
Entry Level 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
Entry Level 3 | /8 | 8 | 7 |
Level 1 | 28 | 29 | 28 |
Level 2 or above | 57 | 54 | 59 |
Unweighted base | 5824 | 2520 | 3304 |
(Skills for Life Survey 2011)
For both women and men, poor literacy is associated with higher rates of unemployment and poorer health and well-being. We do not have evidence to suggest that illiteracy affects women any more than men.
This Government nevertheless understands the importance of English for all adults and has made this subject a priority for support within the adult skills system. An example of this is the Government-funded English and ESOL programmes, which include more female than male learners:
English and maths participation figures 2014/15 | ||
| English | ESOL |
Total Learners | 668,600 | 131,100 |
Gender |
|
|
Female | 379,700 | 88,000 |
Male | 289,000 | 43,100 |
(Statistical First Release – first published January 2014)
We are undertaking a range of research to better understand where Government investment in English and maths has the greatest impact and delivers value for money. This includes: using behavioural insights to identify how to motivate adults to improve their English and maths and encourage learners to keep studying once enrolled on a course, through our partnership with the Behavioural Research Centre for Adult Skills and Knowledge (ASK); longitudinal research into skills gain and skills atrophy of adult English and maths learners; and a comparison of the impact of blended and more traditional classroom learning.