the countries of the former ussr latin america and western europe have also closed the gender gap in education over the last years moreover since the s there has been a trend for women s outcomes in education to surpass those of men and in some countries women achieve higher levels of education than men this is the case in parts of western europe eg england sweden and its offshoots eg australia united states among the developing economies kenya and india made substantial progress in catching up with developed countries in terms of gender equality