Girls in single-sex schools are nearly twice as likely to study VCE chemistry and specialist maths than those in co-ed schools, new research has found.
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And a greater proportion of girls in single-sex schools are studying maths methods and physics than their peers in co-ed schools.
The Monash University research will reignite the ongoing debate about whether single-sex or co-ed schools deliver better outcomes.
It was commissioned by the Alliance of Girls Schools Australasia, which said the findings show girls schools are encouraging women into STEM fields.
The Alliance, which is made up of independent, Catholic and state girls schools, said girls at single-sex schools thrive in what have traditionally been considered male-dominated subjects.
“In a single sex learning environment, girls will be the entire physics class or chemistry class so there is no gender stereotyping or pressure from boys,” the Alliance’s executive officer Loren Bridge said.
In 2015, 27.6 per cent of girls in single-sex school enrolled in VCE chemistry compared with 15.4 per cent in co-ed schools. Around 36 per cent of girls in single-sex schools enrolled in maths methods, compared with 21.6 per cent in co-ed schools.
The same patterns exist for boys in single-sex schools.
Monash University Professor Helen Forgasz suspects socio-economic factors are fuelling students' subject choices.
Professor Forgasz said more students from high socio-economic backgrounds attended girls schools, and their parents may be encouraging them to take up STEM subjects.
"It is well known that parents who are well educated will encourage their children to become highly educated," she said.
The research found that girls schools had no edge when it came to biology, information technology and further maths enrolments. There was hardly any difference in the enrolments in these subjects when girls schools were compared with co-ed schools.
The findings also reveal just how few girls are enrolling in some STEM subjects.
In physics, just 7.5 per cent of all girls in single-sex schools and 5.1 per cent of girls in co-ed schools took up the subject.
This compares with 24.7 per cent of boys in co-ed schools and 22.4 per cent of boys in single sex schools.
Beatrice van Rest will be filling her VCE schedule with science and maths subjects.
The Year 10 student at all-girls Avila College in Mount Waverly wants to be an equine vet and plans on studying VCE maths methods, biology and chemistry.
“I have always loved horses,” she said. “I love how animals are different form us yet the same.”
She has signed up to a range of STEM initiatives at her school, including a project with Swinburne University that involved spending a term researching how plants affect learning.
Her school has also rolled out an initiative where year 8 students mentor grade 4 students at neighbouring schools. The older students conduct science experiments with the younger students in school laboratories.
The research was based on enrolment data from the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority for all students who completed the VCE between 2001 to 2015. The researchers also surveyed graduates from single-sex and co-ed schools.
Some women said they had steered clear of STEM careers due to harrassment and bullying in male-dominated fields and an expectation that they raise children.
Victoria has the largest proportion of girls schools in Australia, with 9 per cent of all schools catering for girls.
