Public service equity and stakeholder satisfaction: evidence from 56 countries on how parents, teachers, and students respond to gender gaps in education

This study examines how gender equity in educational achievement relates to the satisfaction of three key stakeholders: students, parents, and teachers. Using cross-national panel data from the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), covering 56 countries from 2011 to 2019, we link gender gaps in student math and science performance to student and parent satisfaction with schooling, as well as teacher satisfaction with their jobs. We find that gender inequity is associated with lower satisfaction, but parents with a female student and higher SES respond to the gender inequity the most. These findings extend the citizen satisfaction and public service equity literatures by showing that different stakeholders in the same public service system can respond quite differently to inequities, with implications for how governments communicate about and address performance gaps and equity concerns.