analysis of gender structure of theoretical and technical - vocational high schools in the second and third developmental plans and its effect on the university acceptance of boys and girls

education is an investment to improve working ability and social activities of people. in the iranian educational system, training of human resources (men or women) is done via theoretical and technical - vocational fields of study in the high schools. in fact the students’ future education and employment is ascertained by choosing the desired field of study at the end of first year of high school. in the other word, students’ higher education aspirations are directed by the fields of study at high school. they may opt for theoretical studies in which case they can continue such studies at university or they may choose a vocational study which prepares them for a technical job in future the aim of this study is to investigate the gender structure of students in the high schools in the theoretical and technical - vocational fields and its effect on acceptance of male and female students in the universities. the theoretical framework under which this study is carried out is in accordance with human resources management theories. descriptive methods are used for statistical evaluation. the results of this study show that although the male students' proportion was higher in the first grade of high school in all studied years, registration rate of girls for pre-university grade was more than that of boys. our findings also show that although presence of girls has increased in the technical - vocational fields in the third development plan, boys have enjoyed greater opportunities and facilities for continuing education in these fields. higher number of technical - vocational schools and higher diversity in the offered technical - vocational fields for boys are just some of these mentioned opportunities. greater access and presence of boys in the technical - vocational fields and so lower access and presence of girls in these technical - vocational fields and their presence in the theoretical fields as a result, is a cause for gender gaps in the proportion of females over the males in pre-university education and higher acceptance of girls in the universities.