Girls are far ahead of boys in national curriculum tests and GCSEs, a higher proportion of girls than boys go to university, and women win the best degrees in all but four subjects. But David Bell says they need to do even better “if they are to gain the benefits that are properly theirs”.

A study by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development last month showed that the gap in earnings with men was only half as great for women with degrees as it was for non-graduates competing with similarly qualified men. “This means that girls get proportionately more value simply in terms of employment from university-level qualifications than boys. That is a significant finding for me,” Mr Bell said.

“Education beyond upper secondary level brings a particularly high earnings premium for women, although it has to be said that women earn less than men of similar educational attainment.

“The achievement of girls continues therefore to be a matter of pressing concern if girls are to overcome some of the disadvantages that are still inherent in our economy.”

Mr Bell set out his views to 200 head teachers of fee-paying girls’ schools, saying: “We have assumed that the big issue is boys’ achievement, but let’s not forget some of the difficulties that girls continue to face in the system.

“One should not just assume that the gap is about boys’ underachievement. One should also look at it in terms of the premium girls gain from access to higher education.”

Mr Bell’s views run contrary to many of the policy initiatives undertaken by ministers to deal with what they perceive to be the growing failure of boys in school.

There was a difference of nine percentage points between the sexes in last year’s GCSE results, prompting Margaret Hodge, the Higher Education Minister, to declare the achievement gap “unacceptable”. The Education Department is so concerned that it has commissioned Homerton College, Cambridge, to analyse the gap and it has promoted initiatives to tackle boys’ underachievement.

The gap between the sexes appears early, with girls 15 percentage points ahead of boys in national curriculum writing tests at age seven. The gap widens to 16 points at age 11. In GCSE at 16, some 62.4 per cent of girls’ entries were awarded a grade C or better this year compared with 53.4 per cent of boys’ papers. Girls also get more top A-starred grades.

At A level, girls moved narrowly ahead of boys for the first time two years ago, since when the gap has grown. The proportion of top degrees awarded to women is also rising fast. In 2000, 9.9 per cent of female undergraduates earned first-class degrees compared with 9.8 per cent of men. By last year that gap had grown to 11.2 per cent of women and 10.3 per cent of men.

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