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December 18, 2007, 09:29 AM ET
College Gender Gap: Grieve la Difference
Ever since the Newsweek cover story “The Trouble with Boys” by Peg Tyre, the “boy problem” in school has been a media subject. People have gone back and forth on the extent of the problem, for example, this counter-story in Time, but the college enrollment numbers are impossible to ignore.
According to the Department of Education (and covered by the Chronicle here), the total number of enrollments in 2004 of men was 7.3 million, of women 9.8 million, a 2.5 million gap. By 2014, the Department projects, the gap will reach 3.3 million.
When we look at degrees conferred, things look worse. The number of bachelor’s degrees in 2004 for men was 586,000, for women 814,000, a larger difference in relative terms than enrollments, suggesting that, proportionately, more men drop out. By 2014, the difference will grow to 316,000.
For graduate degrees, in 2004, men fell way behind women at the master’s level, but still exceeded them in Ph.D.‘s (23,900 to 21,800). By 2014, however, women will earn 53,700 doctorates, men 47,300.
A few reasons why.
As this study and many others past and present show, boys read a lot less than girls do on their own. In the NEA study, which I directed, the book-reading gap between men and women ages 18 to 24 went from 8 percent in 1992 to 16 percent in 2002. And this study from the Association of American Publishers found that female college students work harder than males.
These leisure and work discrepancies are two causes for the trend, and they won’t change any time soon. But it’s causing headaches every spring for admissions offices, and colleges better learn to accept a student ratio of 60+ percent female for years to come.
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