New Study Highlights Hidden Educational Inequalities
A new study by NADEL’s Professor Isabel Günther, Dr Kenneth Harttgen, and Dr Dario Meili from ETH Zurich’s Development Economics group reveals that traditional measures of gender and ethnic disparities overlook key inequalities in education.
Using data from 40 countries, the researchers from ETH NADEL and ETH's Development Economics group show that intersectional inequality - where gender and ethnicity combine - often exceeds the sum of its parts. The findings indicate that some groups face disproportionate disadvantages that standard analyses miss. In many cases, neither increasing education levels nor reducing gender and ethnic gaps alone is enough to ensure equitable progress. The study calls for targeted policies that address these compounded inequalities, urging policymakers to adopt an intersectional approach to education reform.