it is a moral imperative it is about fairness and equity and includes many political social and cultural dimensions with a special chapter on gender issues this volume of society at a glance asiapacific illustrates the progress that many economies in the asiapacific region have made towards gender equality in education and shows that girls outperform boys in some areas of education but these gains have not yet fully spilled over to the labour market women are most likely to work under vulnerable employment conditions earn less than men are less likely to make it to the top of the career ladder and continue to bear the brunt of unpaid housework economic development in the asiapacific is also related to the ongoing gains in educational attainment perhaps nowhere as dramatic as in korea where the population is now among the highest educated in the world