This is a crisis in American culture. Females now make up more than 56% of students on US college/university campuses, reversing the % from the 1970s. It is great that more females now have the opportunity to attend college. But it’s not very healthy for the culture to have such a large disparity among genders in terms of education levels. Was it healthy for the culture when males made up 58% of college students?
And I think females often do better in college. First, outside of STEM schools and maybe a few others, the biggest effort is made in bringing in males. They are often accepted with lower stats and high school achievement. At my alma mater, a highly ranked national university, it is remarkably easier for males to gain admittance. It had 30-50 female applicants from our local high school and 3 male applicants.
Males continue to struggle in college. We visited a top STEM-focused national university with a larger % of male students (at the time). We asked how it was socially with a relatively more males, and the female student at the info session said so many males just stayed in their rooms playing video games that parties and other social activities were pretty 50/50 in terms of gender.
Anecdotally, of the maybe 100 or so students we watched grow up in our neighborhood one female struggled initially in college and took 6 years to graduate. I can’t think of one other female who struggled and took more than 4 years to graduate. In contrast, a large majority of the males were unable to complete college, even though every one of them went. I am not exaggerating with these stats. And it’s not a matter of parenting. In many cases, the daughters in a family did fine and the sons do not. The one female who struggled was an only child.
I’m literally saying that every female who grew up in our neighborhood graduated college (approximately 50 of them). I cannot think of one exception. And I can rattle off well over 20 males who did not graduate or are college age and out of school. And some were very bright. I can name two who scored at least a 33 on the ACT. Both are now working low-paying jobs that require a high school degree, if that.
It starts young. Our K-12 schools are a challenge for students, especially with the oppressive test regime. It is catastrophically unpleasant for male students. It’s very physically passive; many assignments just seem flat-out irrelevant, especially to males. They fall behind and lose interest in the endeavor. They seem to have a harder time looking to the future and understanding why they are expected to perform the assigned tasks. Video games and the internet are incredibly addictive for males, for some reason. They arrive at college behind academically and certainly with a motivation gap.
It’s not just a problem for males. Heterosexual female college grads who want to marry a male with a comparable education and have children are going to have a hard time finding a spouse when they outnumber males in college 56 or 57% to 44 or 43%.
Scouts, science camps, chess club, 4H These were all activities boys could do in elementary school at my kid’s school or community regardless of gender. And my daughters played sports – they skated (and could have played hockey if they’d wanted), skied, played soccer, and tennis while in elementary school. Other than dance, I can’t think of a lot of activities that boys CAN’T do in that age group. I just don’t see a dearth of activities for boys.
And I don’t see how this is a crisis. For most of history men have dominated academically, in the workplace, etc. Now that women have been given a shot to show what they can do, they are excelling. I don’t see this as a problem. It may be a little tough on men to have to accept that women ARE better than they are at a lot of things once given the chance. My sympathies are limited.
Those school assignments aren’t necessarily so fascinating for girls either, but they plow ahead. Internet addiction is common to both genders, though it takes different forms.
I actually worry about girls more than boys these days due to the more negative influences of social media on girls than on boys, especially at middle and high school age.
@roycroftmom, Those school assignments aren’t necessarily so fascinating for girls either, but they plow ahead.
I agree. And I think the important question is, Why? We can say, too bad for them. But it’s really not a sign of a healthy culture, and certainly not something that is strengthening the culture.
And definitely not in the social sphere. How many women out there would be willing to support a non-college-educated househusband?
I think you’d find the reverse to be more true.
“How many women out there would be willing to support a non-college-educated househusband?”
You go to the military, specialize in cyber-security or computer networks and get your clearance. After that you are all set to pay college loans of your wife.
@VickiSoCal, fair, but percentage-wise, what is the proportion of couples like you (wife with degree & husband with no degree) vs. the reverse?
@tanbiko:
“You go to the military, specialize in cyber-security or computer networks and get your clearance. After that you are all set to pay college loans of your wife.”
That’s a path open to either gender. I don’t see why that makes it easier for a guy to not have a college education.
I will never, ever buy that boys and girls are just “different” in what they learn and how. It’s socialization.
The vast majority of children have been able to adapt to whatever societal changes are thrown at them. They adjusted to compulsory education. They adjusted to the idea of adolescence (remember, this is really a brand new concept). To me, that says that no, it’s not biology- it’s socialization.
A lot actually. But that says nothing about our inherent sex differences. It has to do with very few people have given me crap for being a working woman but a lot of people make fun of my husband for wanting to be a SAHD.
The educational system badly needs reform. I despise how it functions now. But no, the gender gap doesn’t concern me. It does concern me how we socialize girls vs boys and if you want to change the “gender gap” at school, you’d almost certainly have better luck reforming how kids are raised and how we treat men and women in this country.
"A lot actually. But that says nothing about our inherent sex differences. It has to do with very few people have given me crap for being a working woman but a lot of people make fun of my husband for wanting to be a SAHD.
The educational system badly needs reform. I despise how it functions now. But no, the gender gap doesn’t concern me. It does concern me how we socialize girls vs boys and if you want to change the “gender gap” at school, you’d almost certainly have better luck reforming how kids are raised and how we treat men and women in this country."
Fair point, but we live in the world as it is, not the world as you may want it to be, and while we are seeing some pretty quick and big changes in society, are they changing fast enough (and are the economics working to support such changes)? The evidence seems to say “NO” in the US, as the working (non-college-educated) class is increasingly giving birth out of wedlock and falling to social ills, and thus, to a not insignificant degree, leading to Trump.
Actually, @romanigypsyeyes, I will push back on your assertion that it doesn’t come down to biological differences. Firstly, we know that there are biological differences because there are differences in hormonal composition between men and women. And we know that changes in testosterone can lead to changes in behavior in the same person( Andrew Sullivan wrote a nice article about that).
Given that, I think the onus is on you to show that, despite the fact that we know that hormones have a big effect on behavior changes (Sandra Tsing Loh wrote many fine articles about what changes in estrogen levels had on the same person) and despite the fact that it really isn’t debatable that men and women generally have large differences in hormonal composition (at least when young), that biology really doesn’t affect behavior or adaptiveness to social changes. Note that boys and girls adapted to adolescence differently when that phase was invented by adults.
That’s as far as I could read. Really. “Honors” in elementary school. At that age, half the battle is getting the kids to stop picking their nose and peeing their pants.
This right here ^^^. Boys and Girls are different. And in each group boys are different and girls are different. You can have three boys/girls in a family, under the same general circumstances and each will be different. One my go to law school, one learn to fly planes, and one just get a GED.
People, male or female, make different choices based on what they want. Trying to force young ladies into STEM because they are under represented is silly. Just like forcing guys into nursing. Both will choose based on their interests (I know both). I know women with their Mrs. degrees and women who own their own companies. I know men with their Mrs. degrees and men who own their own companies. Opportunities are out there for everyone. You just need to find them and take advantage of them. But do what you love. Life will be some much better for you.
However, people do need to consider others based on their actual interests, goals, and achievements, rather than assuming that gender stereotypes apply to all individuals of a given gender. Transgender people have noticed the difference in ways that others find difficult to notice.
@intparent I agree that girls deserve the attention and opportunities that were denied for so long. At the same time, I’m raising girls and a boy and they all deserve to thrive. I have been fortunate to have a boy that handles school well on top of having schooling options that believed in less seat time, the usefulness of kinestetic learning and a good amount of male elementary school teachers. Spending a lot of time in other classrooms it’s not hard to see so many little boys tagged as trouble for needing to move more.
Activities are regional and can be expensive. For many years, Scouts wasn’t an option for families due to their positions on some things. There aren’t year round science classes and camps in our area. My son did theatre and music along with his big sister but he was often the only male in class. All the elementary and middle School clubs are for those signed up for paid aftercare… not for kids with a parent who can pick them up.
