Study: Academic gains for women, stagnation for men

Student Lounge College Life
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<p>I found this article at CNN. Didn't know where this belonged exactly so I posted it here.</p>

<p><a href="http://www.cnn.com/2006/EDUCATION/06/02/education.women.ap/index.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.cnn.com/2006/EDUCATION/06/02/education.women.ap/index.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

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<p>Study: Academic gains for women, stagnation for men
Friday, June 2, 2006; Posted: 10:12 a.m. EDT (14:12 GMT)</p>

<p>WASHINGTON (AP) -- Women now earn the majority of diplomas in fields men used to dominate -- from biology to business -- and have caught up in pursuit of law, medicine and other advanced degrees.</p>

<p>Even with such enormous gains over the past 25 years, women are paid less than men in comparable jobs and lag in landing top positions on college campuses.</p>

<p>Federal statistics released Thursday show that in many ways, the gender gap among college students is widening. The story is largely one of progress for women, stagnation for men.</p>

<p>Women earn the majority of bachelor's degrees in business, biological sciences, social sciences and history. The same is true for traditional strongholds such as education and psychology.</p>

<p>In undergraduate and graduate disciplines where women trail men, they are gaining ground, earning larger numbers of degrees in math, physical sciences and agriculture.</p>

<p>"Women are going in directions that maybe their mothers or grandmothers never even thought about going," said Avis Jones-DeWeever, who oversees education policy for the Institute of Women's Policy Research.</p>

<p>"We're teaching girls that they need to be able to explore every opportunity that they are interested in. It's good to see that is happening," she said.</p>

<p>The findings were part of a 379-page report, "The Condition of Education," a yearly compilation of statistics that give a picture of academic trends.</p>

<p>Women now account for about half the enrollment in professional programs such as law, medicine and optometry. That is up from 22 percent a generation ago.</p>

<p>The number of women enrolled in undergraduate classes has grown more than twice as fast as it has for men. Women outnumber men on campus by at least 2 million, and the gap is growing.</p>

<p>In business, by far the most popular degree field among undergraduates, women earn slightly more than half of all bachelor degrees; it was one-third in 1980.</p>

<p>"You have a large number of women in the administrative work force, and in the past, they were never able to be the managers and the vice presidents," said Claire Van Ummersen of the American Council on Education. "Now they have those opportunities, and they are taking advantage of them. They can be something other than an administrative assistant."</p>

<p>The U.S. population is 51 percent female, the same as it was three decade ago. Yet legal and cultural barriers have fallen during that time, creating opportunities for women, experts say.</p>

<p>Women also have become savvy about boosting their income for themselves and their families by recognizing the value of advanced degrees, Jones-DeWeever said.</p>

<p>Women who work full time earn about 76 percent as much as men, according to the Institute of Women's Policy Research. Women are underrepresented in full-time faculty jobs, particularly in fields such as physical sciences, engineering and math.</p>

<p>"We clearly have a long way to go," said Van Ummersen, vice president for the council's Center for Effective Leadership. She said some universities are replacing retiring professors, giving women a chance to move into tenured positions.</p>

<p>The enrollment of men in professional degree programs is declining.</p>

<p>"There's every reason to celebrate the success of women. And one has to be concerned about what's happening with men," said Russ Whitehurst, director of the Institute of Education Sciences, a research arm of the Education Department.</p>

<p>Researchers say that men, for different reasons, are not enrolling in or completing college programs with the same urgency as women.</p>

<p>One reason is a failure by schools to teach boys well at en early age, leading to frustration by high school. A second is a recognition by young men that they can land, if only temporarily, some decent-paying jobs without a college degree.</p>

<p>Boys need to have their aspirations raised just as girls have, said Tom Mortenson, senior scholar for The Pell Institute for the Study of Opportunity in Higher Education. By middle school, he said, many boys are tuning out and the problem is only getting worse.</p>

<p>"Women have been making educational progress, and the men are stuck," he said. "They haven't just fallen behind women. They have fallen behind changes in the job market."</p>

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<p>What do you folks think about this? I personally think it's good that women have been taking advantage of the opening opportunities. With that said it worries me to think that many educational institutes have been focusing on ways to accomodate females while seemingly leaving males behind. Shouldn't both genders get equal treatment in their education? That doesn't mean they should be taught the same way but that educators should be finding ways to keep ALL students focused, not just one gender which is what it seems like what's happening. And if educators are doing things to keep all students focused on their education then they are doing a lousy job at it because the amount of growth being shown (at least in this report) by women in different fields sets a widen gap between both genders.</p>

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<p>Actually, women are discriminated against in college applications because there are more qualified female applicants than male. Colleges want gender parity, so it is easier for the guys to get accepted.</p>

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<p>Well I don't see that as discrimination. It's more like keeping a status quo. There are some schools that recruit minorities head on just to get more outside funding. The end result is that more unqualified minorities get into colleges simply because they are minorities. This happens in just about everything. Of course some colleges do this to also keep a balance but there's always some kind of monetary incentive involved I say.</p>

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<p>Keeping the status quo does not refute the possiblity of discrimination.</p>

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<p>but more men are getting their mba's.</p>

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<p>I'm actually writing a paper on this right now! Well, the differences in education in regards to gender in generally, but I'm going to mention this. It's really interesting...</p>

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<p>Women are having a way easier time in my state to get into state school, and especially med school. 72% of incoming first year med students will be women, at a state school. Fair, I think not. It should be 50-50, but today everything is swung towards women. My major is engineering and most scholarships went to women, even though some of them had worse grades and qualifications then some men. Its not fair, but for some reason people believe women are still being hurt while its not the case anymore.</p>

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<p>Please. The education system is rigged in favor of women.</p>

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<p>The education system is greener on the other side. Success is rigged in favor of men.</p>

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<p>Um, not quite. The scholarships and openings in schools go to women if possible. Unless you are talking about nursing where its the other way around, but thats pretty much the exception.</p>

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<p>He wasn't talking about any of that.</p>

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<p>Doesn't matter. At the top of the game, men will always dominate. The best women will never run with the best men. Biologically, men are way more competitive than women. Men can handle a higher amount and level of stress physically and mentally. Nature vs. nurture. Nature always wins.</p>

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<p><em>sigh</em> I think the boys here feel a little threatened.</p>

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<p>Polo, what you said is completely untrue. Women are proven to be able to handle a higher amount of stress physically then men. This may be because of the pain and endurance required to withstand giving birth. This is why women hold so many records for things like ironman triathlons and ultramarathons. Simply put, on matters of handling physical pressures for extended periods of time, women win out.</p>

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<p>chocholate: THEN WHY ARE 99% OF CEO'S MEN. and why is the richest woman in the world the daughter of the founder of walmart who inherited all her $? owned.kthnxbye.</p>

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<p>Listen, to all you people who whine about Affirmative Action admissions, stop and think why women consistently outnumber men across the board in most schools. Fact is the minority that has benefitted from it the most isn't blacks or hispanics, it's women. Yet AA debates always come down to race. Just something I'd thought I'd put out.</p>

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<p>
[quote]
chocholate: THEN WHY ARE 99% OF CEO'S MEN. and why is the richest woman in the world the daughter of the founder of walmart who inherited all her $? owned.kthnxbye.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>The exact same reason as to why the frequency of CEO Black Men were disproportionately low in 1980s.</p>

<p>The opporuntities were not always open to them.</p>

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<p>
[quote]

Women are proven to be able to handle a higher amount of stress physically then men. This may be because of the pain and endurance required to withstand giving birth. This is why women hold so many records for things like ironman triathlons and ultramarathons. Simply put, on matters of handling physical pressures for extended periods of time, women win out.

[/quote]

Are you serious? You are going to counter my argument by trying to show how women are physically superior to men?</p>

<p>Women are "proven" to handle a higher amount of stress physically than men? You must be kidding me?</p>

<p>Then explain to me why ALL of the physical performance standards in the military and federal law enforcement agencies are lower than that of men? If women can handle a higher amount of stress, then shouldn't the physical performance requirements be higher for women than men?</p>

<p>I'm not even going to go further in comparing women against men physically...</p>

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<p>To riptide: I did not say that women were smarter than men or were able to handle more emotional stress. There are several reasons why more males are CEOs than women. The first and obvious is that women are discriminated against in the workforce and a perfectly able woman would not be promoted in a business or be in a position to take charge of a company. This is the same reason that proportionally few African Americans are CEOs. Sorry, but it's not that women and blacks are inferior. Secondly, women tend to be more emotional and sensitive than men. Becoming CEO requires a business mind that often includes the ability to put others down in order to bring yourself up. Many women, no matter how competitive, won't do something if they feel it is unfair and will hurt people uneccesarily. Many men will.</p>

<p>To Polo: Far more men want to go into the military and federal law enforcement agencies than women. This is because men have a tendency to be risk-takers while women do not. Since there is a smaller pool of women interested in going into these professions, they will take less qualified women for these positions. This does not mean that women as a whole are unqualified. Also note that far more men ride motorcycles than women. I am fit enough that I could probably meet most of the military physical peformance standards, or at least the running, pullup, and pushup ones. But, I would rather not risk my life and would rather not serve the country, so I chose to go to a normal university instead of a military one. </p>

<p>Also, I said that women have higher endurance then men. I agree that the average male can lift more weight than the average women. I'd hardly consider this to mean that the average man is more physically fit. </p>

<p>I'd like to see you counter my argument. I told you that most record holders of those 2 races are women. Clearly, women are physically superior at least in that respect, correct?</p>

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<p>
[quote]

Also, I said that women have higher endurance then men. I agree that the average male can lift more weight than the average women. I'd hardly consider this to mean that the average man is more physically fit.

[/quote]

Then why is it that in high school the physical fitness requirements for everything are higher for men than women? Physical fitness requirements are based on a distribution. According to the distribution model, the median male is far superior to the median female from speed, agility, endurance, and strength?</p>

<p>Why is that the best woman tennis player will get shut down so quick by any male in the top 200 worldwide? Why is it that the US's world class Olympic women's hockey team lost to the best male high school team AND checking was NOT allowed?</p>