Women in College: The Gender Gap Grows
by Mary Anne Feeney

Originally published Jan. 22, 2001 on studentadvantage.com.

This is the eleventh in a series of articles and columns on the lives of women in college today.

"When I was a communications major approximately 75 percent of the people in my classes were female," Matthew Geller, a senior at Fordham University, said. "When I switched to my science major the number dropped to around 50 percent."

Does attending a school made up mostly of women make a difference in a male student's educational experience? "Not for me," Geller said. "What matters more is the overall academic atmosphere, which I feel is a very positive one for both men and women alike."

Although Geller is comfortable attending a school where females are in the majority — Fordham is 60 percent female — many critics have a problem with the fact that women are increasingly outnumbering men in U.S. colleges. Certain schools have even considered instituting affirmative action policies for men to counter the trend.

In 1999, 8.5 million women enrolled in U.S. colleges, versus 6.4 million men, according to the National Center for Educational Statistics. Last year women made up 57 percent of those entering college. That percentage is expected to rise to 61 percent by 2009, according to the NCES.

College women, have historically been in the minority, however. Many educators say this is because encouragement and educational opportunities for women have traditionally been lacking. In 1947, only 39 percent of college enrollees were women, according to the U.S. Department of Education. The initiation of affirmative action in 1964, the recent proliferation of gender-specific scholarships and the increasing number of women entering the work force has helped turn that tide.

Where Have All the Cowboys Gone?

Is this new shift in college enrollment causing a crisis for men?

In October, the American Council on Education issued a report entitled "Gender Equity in Higher Education: Are Male Students at a Disadvantage?" The report, written by Jacqueline King, director of ACE's Center for Policy Analysis, examined the reasons why women currently outnumber men on college campuses.

King found that, despite the trend toward a greater proportion of female enrollees, there is no educational crisis among men. King acknowledged, however, that "there are pockets of real problems."

Her study showed that the number of male students in college has remained relatively stable since 1975, but the number of women rose from 5 million in 1975 to 8 million in 1997. King reported that, although more women are enrolled in both public and private colleges nationwide, "These statistics . mask tremendous differences by academic level, age, race/ethnicity, and income."

The largest disparity is present among families earning less than $30,000, where 68 percent of college enrollees are women. "While both male and female low-income students tend to be less well-prepared for college . male low-income students have some ability in this strong economy to make a decent living with just a high-school diploma," King said. As long as the economy is strong, fields like construction will continue to offer good jobs, according to King.

However, she said, "For women, the typical jobs for a high-school graduate are not nearly as good." Most jobs for women with high-school degrees are "pink collar," or service jobs such as retail sales that rarely pay above the minimum wage. "Low-income women are forced by the job market to overcome their academic disadvantages and pursue some type of postsecondary degree," King said.

Sue Bigg, Certified Educational Planner and Consultant, agrees. "Girls are going to college because their interests will lie in careers needing better-honed academic training. A boy can always work in a labor-intensive job in which he can make a decent living," she said.

King's findings also indicated that African-American and Hispanic men particularly lag behind their female peers in educational attainment. Her report stated that two-thirds of African-American college-age students are women.

She pointed out, however, that this gender gap does not exist on all levels of higher education. Men currently hold the majority in the two largest fields for master's degrees: business and engineering. "I think that women have not yet caught up to men in doctoral and professional education," King said, "but that the percentage of women in these programs is on the rise." Producing more women engineers, mathematicians and scientists will "require reversing the notion . that boys are naturally better at math and science and that it is somehow not feminine to excel in these subjects," she said.

Is There a Solution?

Many researchers have had notable disagreements with King's report. One of these critics is Thomas G. Mortenson, senior scholar at the Center for the Study of Opportunity in Higher Education and an independent analyst of higher education policy. Mortenson is trying to convince the public that socioeconomic issues have little to do with the growing gender gap.

So, is affirmative action for men the next step in gaining gender equality in college?

"I truly hope not," Mortenson said. "Affirmative action treats the symptoms, not the causes of the problem." He suggests looking more closely at the performance of males in the K-12 education system and trying to find out what can be done to encourage males to continue their education.

Robert J. Massa, Vice President of Enrollment at Dickinson College, said, "What is really needed is a program that — at an early age — gives positive feedback for academic achievement to young boys."

Massa said that a conversation about the lack of men enrolling in college needs to happen on a national level. No affirmative action program will help address these trends, he said; schools need to figure out how to get men to apply to college, not to simply give them preference in admission.

The Chronicle of Higher Education hosted a chat on November 1, in which King and Mortenson fielded questions and posed their findings on the U.S. college gender gap. The two sparred often during the chat, particularly over whether the gap suggests that the educational system has become biased against men.

"Over the last 20 years," Mortenson said, "amongst white students the proportion of bachelor's degrees going to males has declined from 55 to 45 percent." He added that females were more likely to graduate from high school than males, regardless of family income.

King countered, "There are real problems for low-income and minority men, and we should focus on those, and not become distracted by concerns that there is a broader problem among all men."

Mortenson, however, remains worried about a future with fewer and fewer men entering college. "There are fundamental changes occurring in the world that appear to be having different effects on men and women; changes like urbanization, job-market changes and the fact of change itself," Mortenson said. "In this environment women appear to be prospering and men don't.

"I'm not sure that we've yet seen the tip of the iceberg on this issue," he said.

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The Long Road to Equality
The New Century's Student Body (on undergrad enrollment trends)
Blatant Lack of Faculty Equality, Female Profs Say
We, the Teachers (column on female profs)
Freshwoman Primer
Why I Hate Men (column on women's studies)
How Women's Studies Was Born
Mourning the Death of Radcliffe
Where Boys Need Not Apply
Life as a ROTC Woman
The Gender Gap Grows