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Wednesday, April 9, 2008
By Rodrigo Haro
Columnist
There’s an alarming gap at undergraduate colleges in the men-to-women ratio.
But, the gap does not favor the gender you may think.
Nationally, women make up 57% of undergraduates and 59% of graduates at colleges and universities, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Colleges and universities are struggling to keep the gender ratio at a balance, and thus creating “gender affirmative action” towards male students.
“If girls were once excluded because they somehow weren’t good enough, they now are rejected because they’re too good. Or at least they are so good, compared with boys, that admissions committees at some… colleges have problems managing a balanced freshman class” explains Nancy Gibbs in Times magazine.
This is creating disparities and unjust treatment for both men and women. Since the 70’s when the elite colleges and universities went co-ed the rate of women in college has increased and has now surpassed the male college population. If you would randomly pick a university and take a look at their statistics chances are most likely the women population would be slightly, if not considerably, higher. So many more talented women and less talented men (I’ll explain why later) are applying to college that college counselors are staring to favor male applicants in order to keep the male to female ratio intact.
“Over the past 10 years many schools are maintaining their gender balance by admitting men and women at sometimes drastically different rates”, according to Alex Kingsbury, U.S. News and World Report.
Are males underachieving or are women, as a gender, overachieving or simply catching up to males?
It seems to be a little of both. An article by Mary Beth Marklein of USA Today points out that “More boys are dropping out of high school and out of college.”
This may be because of certain social and family factors, or upbringings that illustrate college as being less “cool” or attractive, especially among minority families.
Marklein also points out the possibility that “elementary and secondary schools aren’t meeting the developmental needs of boys.” Gibbs from Time also mentions “There is some message boys are not receiving, role models they are missing, that speaks to the importance of an education both broad and deep”
On the other side of the spectrum Kingsbury from U.S. News states that “The reason for these lower admissions rates for female students is simple… girls tend to be better students… Indeed, beginning in those formative K-12 years, girls watch less television, spend less time playing sports, and are far less likely to find themselves in detention. They are more likely to participate in drama, art, and music classes—extracurriculars that are catnip for admissions officers. Across the board, girls study more, score better, and graduate from high school at a slightly higher rate than men.”
All these factors help explain some of the disparities in gender ratios at colleges. The Department of Education predicts that the female to male ratio at colleges and universities will be 60 to 40 by 2010.
Of course, women have not achieved economic equity as a result of their higher rate of academic performance.
According to Marklein, “There are more men than women ages 18-24 in the USA — 15 million vs. 14.2 million, according to a Census Bureau estimate last year. But nationally, the male/female ratio on campus today is 43/57”
And to top it all…
“There’s still a pay gap. According to the Census Bureau, women on average earned 77 cents to each dollar paid to male counterparts in 2004”
So to recap: there are more men than women, more women are going to college, but women are still getting paid less than men.
Women are putting their faith in the education system and an economy/workforce that doesn’t reward their accomplishments. And men are keeping their wage superiority although their college attendance numbers are falling.
