As part of our investigation into the State of Scotland’s Colleges, we are exploring some of the key data from the further education sector, including funding levels, student numbers, and course availability, and using it to paint a larger and more detailed picture than has previously been produced.

But there’s another key factor in that sort of analysis: when we look at the situation for staff and students, the role of gender is a major and indisputable part of the story.

As is also the case with schools, the majority of the college workforce is made up of women, and official data from the Scottish Funding Council confirms the exact gender split amongst those working in further education.

Amongst all staff, women make up 61% of the total, although the level drops slightly to 54% when looking only at teaching staff across the sector. These figures have been consistent across the past decade.

Data provided by Colleges Scotland – an organisation which describes itself as ‘the voice of the college sector’ – also provides gender breakdowns of the management workforce, allowing us to determine whether or not women are fairly represented in leadership roles.

The figures show that women account for 57% of senior management posts in Scotland’s colleges, which is slightly less than the overall proportion of women in the college workforce, but slightly more than the proportion of all teaching staff that are women.

Amongst college management boards, however, women make up just under half (48%) of members.

Women represent even smaller proportion of the highly-paid principals who are ultimately in charge of Scotland’s colleges, accounting for just 42% of the total.

But by the far the largest gender gap is found amongst the chairs of college boards of management, just 25% of whom are women.

SFC data also allows us to look at the gender divides amongst students in Scotland’s colleges.

In nine of the past ten years, slightly more than half of all college enrolments have been for women, and that pattern remains true when looking specifically at both Higher Education and Further Education courses.

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However, when gender data is combined with students’ ages, it becomes possible to identify particular periods in which men and women’s access to college is noticeably different.

Up to the age of 16 the numbers of male and female college students are very similar, but between the ages of 17 and 23 young men are much more likely to enrol on a college course than is the case for young women. In 2022-23, almost 59,000 enrolments were recorded for men in this age range, whereas the figure for women the same age was just over 40,000.

Entry levels for men and women are similar between the ages of 24 and 26, but from this point women outnumber men. Last year, colleges recorded a total of 33,779 enrolments for men aged 30-50, but the corresponding figure for women was more than 50% higher at 51,923.

Catherine Murphy, Executive Director of Engender, told The Herald that the gender gaps in colleges are “unsurprising” and that it is “crucial that Scottish educational institutions recognise this imbalance.”

“The gendered leadership gap within Scotland’s further education institutions has continued to widen in recent years. This latest research confirms a trend we have been flagging for the last decade. We know that women are under-represented in leadership positions across the sector- from schools to colleges to universities. That impacts on how these educational spaces are designed and run, how they benefit women and the extent to which women can access them.

“Scotland needs educational institutions that are designed with, by and for women – to address occupational segregation within the sector. Currently women make up 59% of the student population in Scotland, but only 42% of college principals and 26% of university heads. We urgently need to address the more pronounced barriers that women from minority communities face. None of Scotland’s universities are led by women of colour, despite at least 10% of student being from a Black, Asian or minority ethnic backgrounds.

“It is unsurprising to see that young men aged 17 to 23 are much more likely to enrol on a college course than young women or that the number of women enrolling aged over 30 is almost 50% higher than men.

“We know that women, particularly young and minoritised women across Scotland, are most likely to be affected by the cost-of-living crisis, are more likely to have caring responsibilities, make up 92% of lone parents, and experience higher levels of poverty. Women and girls are also still subjected to gendered stereotypes from a young age that impact the kinds of subjects they choose to study, what courses they feel confident taking and ultimately the kinds of jobs they can access. It is crucial that Scottish educational institutions recognise this imbalance and better serve women and the reality of their lives.”

A spokesperson for Colleges Scotland told The Herald “college chairs are public appointments” and that individual institutions “do not have any influence around the appointment process.”

In response, a Scottish Government spokesperson said: “While operational decisions on staffing matters are the responsibility of individual colleges, the Scottish Government expects college boards to ensure that diversity is central to the recruitment of board members across the sector.”