An article about the subject discussed in this
text was first published in the
T E X T
Men Fall Behind in College Enrollment.
Women Still Play Catch-Up at Work.
The coronavirus upended the lives of
millions of college students. The Wall Street Journal
reported this week that men have been hit
particularly hard — accounting for roughly three-fourths of pandemic-driven dropouts — and
depicted an accelerating crisis in male enrollment.
A closer look at historical trends and the
labor market reveals a more complex picture, one
in which women keep playing catch-up in an
economy structured to favor men.
In many ways, the college gender
imbalance is not new. Women have outnumbered
men on campus since the late 1970s. The ratio of
female to male undergraduates increased much
more from 1970 to 1980 than from 1980 to the
present. And the numbers haven’t changed much in
recent decades. In 1992, 55 percent of college
students were women. By 2019, the number had
nudged up to 57.4 percent.
While the shift in the college gender ratio
is often characterized as men “falling behind,” men
are actually more likely to go to college today than
they were when they were the majority, many
decades ago. In 1970, 32 percent of men 18 to 24 were enrolled in college, a level that was most
likely inflated by the opportunity to avoid being
drafted into the Vietnam War. That percentage
dropped to 24 percent in 1978 and then steadily
grew to a stable 37 percent to 39 percent over the
last decade.
The gender ratio mostly changed because
female enrollment increased even faster, more than
doubling over the last half-century.
Because of the change in ratio, some
selective colleges discriminate against women in
admissions to maintain a gender balance, as The
Journal reported. Generally, admissions officials
prefer to limit the disparity to 55 percent female
and 45 percent male. Their reason not to let the
gender ratio drift further toward 2 to 1 is
straightforward: Such a ratio would most likely
cause a decrease in applications.
In a New York Times essay in 2006 titled
“To All the Girls I’ve Rejected,” the dean of
admissions at Kenyon College at the time
explained: “Beyond the availability of dance
partners for the winter formal, gender balance
matters in ways both large and small on a
residential college campus. Once you become
decidedly female in enrollment, fewer males and,
as it turns out, fewer females find your campus
attractive.”
The raw numbers don’t take into account
the varying value of college degrees. Men still
dominate in fields like technology and engineering,
which offer some of the highest salaries for recent
graduates. Perhaps not coincidentally, the
professors in those fields remain overwhelmingly
male.
Women surged into college because they
were able to, but also because many had to. There
are still some good-paying jobs available to men
without college credentials. There are relatively few
for such women. And despite the considerable cost
in time and money of earning a degree, many
female-dominated jobs don’t pay well.
The fact that the male-female wage gap
remains large after more than four decades in
which women outnumbered men in college strongly
suggests that college alone offers a narrow view of
opportunity. Women often seem stuck in place: As
they overcome obstacles and use their degrees to
move into male-dominated fields, the fields offer
less pay in return.
None of this diminishes the significance of
the male decrease in college enrollment and
graduation. Educators view the male-driven dive in
community college enrollment over the last 18
months as a calamity. The pandemic confirmed
what was already known. Higher socioeconomic
classes are deeply embedded in college and will
bear considerable cost and inconvenience to stay
there, even if it means watching lectures on a
laptop in the room above your parent’s garage and
missing a season of parties and football games.
For other people, college attendance is far
more fragile. It does not define their identities and
is not as important as earning a steady paycheck or
starting and nurturing a family. In a time of crisis, it can be delayed — but the reality is that people
who drop out of college are statistically unlikely to
complete a degree.
Last year, women were less likely than
men to leave community college, despite their
disproportionate responsibility for caregiving and
domestic work, because they no doubt understood
the bleak long-term job prospects for women
without a credential.
www.nytimes.com/Sept.9,2021
T E X T
Men Fall Behind in College Enrollment.
Women Still Play Catch-Up at Work.
The coronavirus upended the lives of millions of college students. The Wall Street Journal reported this week that men have been hit particularly hard — accounting for roughly three-fourths of pandemic-driven dropouts — and depicted an accelerating crisis in male enrollment.
A closer look at historical trends and the labor market reveals a more complex picture, one in which women keep playing catch-up in an economy structured to favor men.
In many ways, the college gender imbalance is not new. Women have outnumbered men on campus since the late 1970s. The ratio of female to male undergraduates increased much more from 1970 to 1980 than from 1980 to the present. And the numbers haven’t changed much in recent decades. In 1992, 55 percent of college students were women. By 2019, the number had nudged up to 57.4 percent.
While the shift in the college gender ratio is often characterized as men “falling behind,” men are actually more likely to go to college today than they were when they were the majority, many decades ago. In 1970, 32 percent of men 18 to 24 were enrolled in college, a level that was most likely inflated by the opportunity to avoid being drafted into the Vietnam War. That percentage dropped to 24 percent in 1978 and then steadily grew to a stable 37 percent to 39 percent over the last decade.
The gender ratio mostly changed because female enrollment increased even faster, more than doubling over the last half-century.
Because of the change in ratio, some selective colleges discriminate against women in admissions to maintain a gender balance, as The Journal reported. Generally, admissions officials prefer to limit the disparity to 55 percent female and 45 percent male. Their reason not to let the gender ratio drift further toward 2 to 1 is straightforward: Such a ratio would most likely cause a decrease in applications.
In a New York Times essay in 2006 titled “To All the Girls I’ve Rejected,” the dean of admissions at Kenyon College at the time explained: “Beyond the availability of dance partners for the winter formal, gender balance matters in ways both large and small on a residential college campus. Once you become decidedly female in enrollment, fewer males and, as it turns out, fewer females find your campus attractive.”
The raw numbers don’t take into account the varying value of college degrees. Men still dominate in fields like technology and engineering, which offer some of the highest salaries for recent graduates. Perhaps not coincidentally, the professors in those fields remain overwhelmingly male.
Women surged into college because they were able to, but also because many had to. There are still some good-paying jobs available to men without college credentials. There are relatively few for such women. And despite the considerable cost in time and money of earning a degree, many female-dominated jobs don’t pay well.
The fact that the male-female wage gap remains large after more than four decades in which women outnumbered men in college strongly suggests that college alone offers a narrow view of opportunity. Women often seem stuck in place: As they overcome obstacles and use their degrees to move into male-dominated fields, the fields offer less pay in return.
None of this diminishes the significance of the male decrease in college enrollment and graduation. Educators view the male-driven dive in community college enrollment over the last 18 months as a calamity. The pandemic confirmed what was already known. Higher socioeconomic classes are deeply embedded in college and will bear considerable cost and inconvenience to stay there, even if it means watching lectures on a laptop in the room above your parent’s garage and missing a season of parties and football games.
For other people, college attendance is far more fragile. It does not define their identities and is not as important as earning a steady paycheck or starting and nurturing a family. In a time of crisis, it can be delayed — but the reality is that people who drop out of college are statistically unlikely to complete a degree.
Last year, women were less likely than men to leave community college, despite their disproportionate responsibility for caregiving and domestic work, because they no doubt understood the bleak long-term job prospects for women without a credential.
www.nytimes.com/Sept.9,2021
