GIRLS may out-perform boys in the classroom – but North Swindon MP Justin Tomlinson says more should be done to get women into male-dominated industries.

According to research by psychologists at the universities of Glasgow and Missouri, girls fare significantly better academically in mathematics, reading and science literacy in 70 per cent of countries – even those with political, economical and societal gender inequalities.

The study examined the educational achievement levels of 1.5 million 15-year-olds from around the world between 2000 and 2010.

In the UK and the US there was no significant difference in educational achievement between the two sexes, according to the study.

Mr Tomlinson said more work needed to be done to encourage youngsters into male-dominate industries.

He said: “I have been working very hard in Parliament and with other organisations to try and address the inequality of females in ICT careers and the ICT industry.

“The ICT industry is a growing industry with increasingly attractive pay opportunities but is very under-represented by women in the work force.

“Work is being done to encourage more young girls to consider going into the ICT profession, especially since here in Swindon we have so many industries and businesses integral to the industry, including Intel.

“There are also many different roles in the industry, which people might not realise.”

The study’s findings were published in the journal Intelligence and showed there were only three regions where boys out-performed girls – Colombia, Costa Rica and the Indian state Himachal Pradesh.

But at the highest achievement levels, top-performing boys did better than top-performing girls.