Education expansion and its effects on gender gaps in educational attainment and political knowledge in Taiwan from 1992 to 2012

This study investigates whether increasing the availability of education for women would minimize gender gaps in educational attainment and political knowledge in Taiwan. Seven waves of nationally representative survey data were analyzed to assess the effects of the national education expansion on gender equity in educational attainment and political knowledge. The empirical analysis in this study indicated that the extension of compulsory education and expansion of higher education in Taiwan offered more educational opportunities for women, especially those in the older cohorts, and substantially corrected the educational inequality between genders in the younger cohorts. Furthermore, the improvement in educational equality between genders diminished the gap in political knowledge among younger people in Taiwan.