The bar graph illustrates the proportions of men and women with tertiary education qualifications in five distinct countries in 2001. Overall, Switzerland led in male graduates, while Germany had the highest proportion of female graduates. Men outperformed women in Japan, Switzerland, and Britain, in terms of acquiring higher education diploma, whereas the opposite was true for the United States and Germany. Notably, Japan had the lowest figures for both genders.

Focusing on counties where men dominated tertiary education, Switzerland took a lead, with nearly half of men obtaining the qualifications compared to 35% of females. However, this discrepancy was less noticeable in Japan and Britain, countries that had somewhat similar literacy rates. While the former accounted for males (30%) and females (25%), the latter exhibited 35% and 30% for men and women, respectively.

In contrast, women outpaced men in higher education in the remaining countries. In the United States, over one-third of men earned tertiary qualifications, compared to 40% of women—a difference of 5 percentage points. This gap widened in Germany, where 45% of women attained higher education qualifications, doubling the 5 percentage point difference seen in the U.S.

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