Education and Research Minister Kristina Kallas (Eesti 200) and Kadri Täht, a professor of work and education sociology at Tallinn University (TLÜ), agree that the gender imbalance is not necessarily a problem in itself. It becomes one, Täht said, when educational choices limit people's future opportunities, reinforcing gender segregation in the labor market.
"Traditional jobs in manufacturing, where men typically found work and where engineers were required to have degrees, have declined," Kallas said. Automation has reduced demand for such jobs, she added, with artificial intelligence (AI) expected to accelerate the trend.
The imbalance is particularly pronounced in health and welfare majors, which encompass everything from healthcare to social work. Last academic year, women outnumbered men in these programs by more than four to one, with 5,553 female students compared with just 1,246 men.
Gender Equality and Equal Treatment Commissioner Christian Veske has likewise warned that the divide could leave society less prepared for crises.
"In a crisis, society needs everyone's skills, but the way people are distributed across educational fields limits that," he said, pointing to Ukraine's experience.
Gap starts much earlier
Both Kallas and Täht said the imbalance has roots in earlier stages of education.
"The education system likely already favors girls a bit more at the basic education level already," Täht acknowledged, citing differences in study habits and learning styles.
She said boys are also more likely to pursue vocational education after basic school. Men accounted for 54 percent of vocational students in Estonia last academic year, and have made up at least half of the total every year for the past eight years.
The professor stressed, however, that this does not mean the education system is designed for girls. Rather, social expectations may be contributing to differences in learning skills and motivation.
According to Estonia's latest PISA results, girls outscored boys in reading by 25 points, while boys led in math by 13 points. Täht said it is difficult to determine whether social or biological factors are at play.
Estonia also has one of the euro area's largest gender pay gaps, with men earning an average of 12.2 percent more than women last year, according to Statistics Estonia, and Täht said even that could be encouraging young men to enter the workforce sooner.
"Even when girls are better educated, we still see men ultimately earning more on average in the labor market," she explained.
Health impacts of higher ed
At the ministry, Kallas pointed to Estonia recently raising the compulsory school attendance age from 16 to 18 as one step toward narrowing the education gap.
She said one of the goals of the change, which will keep teens in school until they've earned either a high school or vocational education diploma, "is to reduce the education gap between boys and girls."
Lower education levels are also associated with other issues, such as poorer health, the minister said.
Taavi Tillmann, an associate professor of public health at the University of Tartu (TÜ), has also discussed this link, telling Novaator that people with higher education levels tend to be healthier and have lower rates of cardiovascular disease — though exactly why remains unclear, even to Tillmann.
Täht agreed that raising the attendance age to 18 could help more boys finish school at the upper secondary level and go on to continue their education, but cautioned that it's still no guarantee more men will actually enroll.
"What matters is that more [boys] actually end up in upper secondary education and then go on from there to pursue higher education," she said.
Few measures target boys directly
Other government efforts include a regulation adopted by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communication (MKM) last November to reduce gender segregation in education and the labor market — although more broadly, the regulation serves to underpin the EU's funding system.
This spring, the State Shared Service Center (RTK) also distributed nearly €2.3 million to projects aimed at addressing the divide, with about 30 percent coming directly from the state budget.
Among the recipients, Taavi Kotka's HK Unicorn Squad received nearly €215,000 to promote girls' interest in technology and engineering, while the Estonian Business School (EBS) received €214,000 for a project to empower girls in STEM and leadership.
Of the 12 funded projects, only three directly encourage boys to pursue higher education: two focus on teachers and one on healthcare workers.
At TLÜ, Täht said the education system should identify earlier what causes teen boys to lose interest in school and continuing their education.
"That way they could be provided with better support and guidance, and they could find their education more meaningful, exciting and useful," she added.
While the compulsory school attendance age was only just raised to 18 this year, women have accounted for around 60 percent of higher education students since at least 2010.
Asked why the state hadn't acted sooner, Kallas said, "Better late than never."
The minister added that there are already so many major initiatives underway in Estonia's education system that the ministry simply lacks the capacity to take on anything new, including addressing the gender education gap.
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