The gender gap measured by average number of years of schooling for the Brazilian population had favored the male population up to the 1980 Census. In 1991, though it was reversed and women averaged .26 year more of schooling than their male counterparts. These aggregated statistics fudge intra-cohort differences. This paper plans to focus on these differences and evaluates the evolution of schooling for each sex, using cohorts for the available censuses. It also analyses data on the school population from the different censuses and from Elementary and High School Evaluation System (Saeb). Saeb data concerns exclusively on elementary school 4th and 8th graders and high school 3rd graders. The main conclusion is that women have been better performers at the first school years, shorter age/grade gap, but usually left school earlier than men. Men have been more persistent and in spite of worse performance stayed longer in school and graduated at higher levels. Up to certain ages women presented more years of schooling than men. In each census this age has been getting higher. There are also differences in the proportion of individuals of each sex graduating at the several levels of formal education. The proportion of university graduates among males in older cohorts in the 1960 census is almost 20 times greater than the proportion among females. On the other hand, the proportion of university graduates among males in younger cohorts in the 1991 census is almost half the proportion among females. The same thing happens for all levels of formal schooling, in a slightly less aggravated form. The proportion of elementary school graduates among males in older cohorts in the 1960 census is 20% greater than the proportion among females and in 1991 there are 10% less males in the younger cohorts. School population in older census was predominantly male and, in average, enrolled in more advanced levels. In more recent census the situation is reversed.