King's College London

Dr Marco Giani and Dr Krzysztof Krakowski examined a major reform enacted in 1954 in the Soviet Union, when leaders abruptly abolished compulsory single-sex schooling in urban areas, shifting millions of children into coeducational classrooms.

They used the sudden policy shift as a natural experiment to examine the lifelong effects of classroom desegregation on gender equality.

The study, to be published in the Journal of Politics, found that children who attended mixed-sex schools developed persistently less traditional views on domestic roles. Decades later, women who experienced coeducation reallocated approximately two hours per week of productive work from domestic chores to paid employment. Men exposed to the reform also held significantly less sexist attitudes regarding the division of household labour.

However, the researchers discovered a continued divide between private and public life. Coeducation did not change attitudes toward women in business or political leadership, nor did it increase the likelihood of women holding top positions in those spheres.

The authors suggest that while intergender contact in school naturally breaks down stereotypes about domestic roles, it does not automatically influence more distant public roles.

The academics said translating household equality into leadership opportunities requires institutional support, which was largely absent in the Soviet Union. Entrenched male patronage networks and a lack of credible career pathways for mothers maintained a glass ceiling that classroom equality alone could not shatter.

They concluded that while coeducation effectively improves women's standing in the private sphere, institutional initiatives were still need to achieve wider equality.