Why Are More Women Than Men Going to College?

[ismnotwasm]

Women are attending and obtaining degrees from U.S. colleges and universities at a pace exceeding that of men. In concordance with the burgeoning women’s rights movement that exploded in the 1960s and 1970s and provided a plethora of new opportunities for advancement, this trend has translated into ever-increasing college enrollment for women.

On some co-ed campuses, the girls outnumber the boys by a ratio of almost three-to-one – an astounding figure.
First, the stark numbers.
According to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), between 1999 and 2009, overall college enrollment increased by 38 percent, from 14.8 million to 20.4 million. But, over that time span, the number of enrolled females climbed by 40 percent, versus 35 percent for men.

But why is this happening? Are young women simply more ambitious and harder-working? Are men becoming increasingly disengaged from academia? It is unclear.

Sax cautions that while women are indeed attending college in record numbers, men are attending in record numbers as well.

“What has changed is the relative balance between men and women, since women's enrollments have risen faster than men's,” she said.

“Further, the growing gender gap in college enrollments is attributable primarily to increases in college attendance among women from groups historically under-represented in higher education -- namely, African Americans, Latinas, older students, and lower-income students.”

An article in the Wall Street Journal recently stated: “Women now graduate from college in greater numbers than men and enter the workforce at similar rates. Yet at every career stage, men are more likely to advance than women.”

Dominic Barton, global managing director of McKinsey & Co., told the Journal: “The number of women participating in the workforce went from about 41 percent to 56 percent over a 40-year period. If they didn't join the work force, that would have been a 25 percent hit to GDP.”

He added: “But while we've seen a lot of progress over a 40-year period, our sense is that it's begun to plateau. I look at our own firm on that front, where we're trying to find the best talent in the world, and 25 percent of our intake are women, even though 58 percent of the college graduates are women.”

Barton further explained that at the entry-level, 53 percent of new hires are women. However, their participation rate steadily decrease as one ascends the corporate ladder -- 37 percent in lower-middle management; 28 percent at the vice-presidency level; then only 14 percent at the executive committee; then finally only a pitiful 3 percent at the highest echelons of corporate America.

I was wondering about this, after it was brought up-- not the gender gap itself so much-- this I've known about--(No one can quite explain Why--I sullied myself reading quite a few rw opinion pieces on the 'why' of the gender gap. Lets just say it was disgusting.). But who is attending college and what happens after. That was about what I expected.


http://www.ibtimes.com/why-are-more-women-men-going-college-213255

[ToxMarz]

1. To find a husband?

[ismnotwasm]

5. That's it!!!

Of course they may be wanting to find a wife, so let's leave homophobia out of it please.

[seabeyond]

7. ah, but with that degree they are finding little use

for the whole husband thing. with more college comes much later marriage or no marriage.

[ismnotwasm]

12. Shhh

That's a special woman secret.

[ismnotwasm]

3. Those are good observations

The recent (think Santorum)RW meme being proud of being 'anti-intellectual" can't be helping either.

[Tunkamerica]

4. who are you hanging out with?

I hear exactly the opposite. Granted I know no men who have boxers or extreme fighters as sons and several who have artists and scientists. My father being one.

[ismnotwasm]

6. When I stared looking into this one of the things I expected

-- racial disparities and the causes were fairly clearly documented. Why young white men are apparently slowing college attendance is less clear. There are interesting breakdowns by state and by majors. It would be Interesting to see if RW ignorance has had an impact.

Of course Parents generally are proud of children who do well, I think the poster was referring to pre-college attitudes.

[seabeyond]

9. i know this was a big issue for my sons in middle school. a huge issue. and it is also the forked

road that the kids choose success or not in their minds, it seems.

the kids were battling the idea of being smart.

now my son is a senior in high school. he says now, the boys are proud of being smart, strive and work hard to be perceived as smart. but by senior yr in high school, about 50% have dropped out, too.

i think you are correct on a lot of what you say. especially in areas like where i live.

[seabeyond]

8. i think historically a non college man can find a job that is a living wage. not as much today,

but the jobs are still there and many see their fathers having had a living wage job without college.

where as more and more young women see the very low wage if they do not have college and very little opportunity otherwise. not to mention in the past, it was assumed they would stay home and raise the kids, and that is not assumed today. either getting married, or being able to stay home and raise the kids.

i think it is perfectly logical that more young women would be making the choice for a degree.

and perfectly logical why young men do not feel the same push as the women.

[no_hypocrisy]

10. If so, I don't understand why there's been a decline in

enrollment in all women's colleges and universities, forcing some establsihed institutions to admit men.

[ismnotwasm]

11. It's actually a multi- factorial issue

For instance, It's been spin in a very interesting, institutionalized racist way, because the question (sort of) includes women of color and ignores men of color. It uses statistics from the '70's to now, which says a lot right there.

The private women's colleges have their own set of statistics-- also conveniently ignored.

Perhaps the question should be 'why are women, with the inclusion of women of color, attending collage more than white men"?

[MadrasT]

13. This topic is very interesting to me

And I would also like to know why this is.

I actually had a pretty interesting conversation about it in the Men's Group before it got so toxic and nasty over there. (Can't link to it, I am on a mobile device.)

Edit to add, if there is something more we need to do to help boys, I would like to see us (this country) figure out what that is and do it.

[ismnotwasm]

14. I agree

I've read several articles, then I talked to a few co- workers. But I haven't come up with a definitive answer. Blaming the anti-education right wing, while attractive, is probably a very small part of it.

One thing I should have clarified is that women of color are going to college in higher numbers than men of color. So this is a huge problem. Until we know what, exactly is going on-- it will be hard to combat. All I can find are mostly statistics, useless news articles, mumblings about things like 'single parent homes' rw talking points on how 'liberals' have destroyed masculinity or some such nonsense----- very little about how we are prepping young men for college or funding for college. I have questions like, what if a young man thought he was going to receive a sports scholarship, counted on it, and then found the playing field- so to speak--was much larger than they realized and never got one? How many do opt out for the military? Questions, questions..

I've never been to the Men's group, given their representatives who come to visit here.