Some disturbing numbers from the Council of Graduate Schools:
What’s the problem? If more women choose to go to grad school than men, it’s fine with me.
Are you suggesting there are policies in place that make it hard for men to go to grad school?
Yup. Cuz for 200 years before that, men dominated all those categories. So in 192 years, we can chat about that. I think it is great – women have really only had a fairly level playing field in terms of expectations and opportunities in academia since the late 1970s. Except for Cornell, no other Ivy admitted women until 1977 (only 2 years before I applied to college). In less than 40 years, they’ve shown how dumb gender discrimination was for all those years. You go, girls!
I think the perceived “problem” is gender inequality in education. That’s been discussed for 100+ years, mostly because it was male dominated, but now that it’s female dominated, is that a problem? If not, why not? I see that as an interesting question, and one I think that would put the whole issue of gender inequality (in education) into a new light.
IMHO, this trend is being driven by changing economics and gender preferences (as in male trends toward Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Sciences, and Female trends toward Education, Health Sciences and Public Administration).
Another way to put the question. Is it a problem that That 77.2% of Doctoral Degrees earned in Engineering are by males? Is it a problem that 69.4% and 69.9% of Doctoral Degrees in Education and Health Sciences are earned by Females?
There is no easy answer on why this is a trend. I’m sure we can find dozens of reasons, from the rapid growth in health services, accreditation inflation issue in education, to the often discussed issue with women in computer sciences.
For a lot of the fields that men go into, like Engineering, Math and CS, there isn’t a requirement to get a graduate degree to advance. Maybe for the fields that women go into, like Health Sciences and Social and Behavioral Sciences, there is more of a need for graduate degrees to advance in your job.
Someone will find a problem where there isn’t one that is for sure!
I see no problem the opportunity is there for females, males, and all races regardless of what certain people think.
Take a look at the gender makeup of the faculty at colleges and universities. Large majority are males. Of course it differs from one field to another (humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, engineering, education, health sciences, business, etc.). But it will be a long time if ever before a balance is achieved. My own academic department – in a social science – has a faculty that is one-third women (11/33). When I first joined that department a few decades ago there were just 2 women faculty members. Great progress, but a long way to go.
I think the reported study is very positive from the standpoint of supply-demand of “replacement faculty.” There will be more highly qualified women to compete in the academic marketplace. But this refers largely to PhD/MD and other “doctoral” degrees, not to the much larger mass of “graduate students.”
Also take a look at the gender makeup of partners at law firms, judges, and other categories into which lawyers might be placed. These still favor men even though women are now the majority of law students.
@rosered55 Graduating law school students are not placed as law partners or judges. They work their way up to those positions. In time the balance will even out.
My reaction to most of the comments to the OP: one thing is safe to say- irony is lost on you guys
FWIW, re: the statement that except for Cornell, no other Ivy admitted women until 1977, which caught my eye since my sis started at one of the Ivy’s in 1975: As far as I could determine, the dates that the Ivy’s began admitting women, are: Brown 1971 (when Pembroke merged with Brown), Columbia (1983), Cornell (sort of hard to tell, but at least 1970), Dartmouth 1972, Harvard 1977 (when Radcliffe merged with Harvard), Penn (hard to say exactly, but early 20th Century), Princeton 1969, Yale 1969.
@TomSrOfBoston, I’ve been a lawyer for almost 30 years. There were many women in my law school class. I’m aware of the trends. And what they are is that women are still disproportionately represented in positions of power in the law and it’s not clear this will change based on them being the majority of law students.
Maybe, Maybe when women are over represented among politicians, CEOs, judges, professors, etc etc we can talk about something being disturbing.
Until then - yawn.
Sorry, took the first result from Google on the year, my mistake. So around 1970 – 45 years. Regarding irony, it isn’t a joking or ironic topic to women who were told growing up (as I was) that their only career options were secretary, teacher, nurse or stewardess.
The number of American men who have college degrees has grown over time, from 5.5% in 1940 to 33.2% in 2016.
Over the same time period, the number of American women with college degrees grew from 3.8% to 33.7%.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/184272/educational-attainment-of-college-diploma-or-higher-by-gender/
Why is this growth disturbing?
“For a lot of the fields that men go into, like Engineering, Math and CS, there isn’t a requirement to get a graduate degree to advance.”
I got a bachelor’s degree in math, and found a master’s useful, although not actually necessary. For engineering and computer science as far as I know you are entirely correct. The people that I know (in computer science) with master’s degrees mostly got them as a way to get into the US rather than as something needed to get a job.
IMHO this is very likely to be the largest reason for this disparity in graduate degrees.
A lot of traditionally female jobs require post-college degrees. Teaching, for one.
Social Work, OT, Guidance counselor , Speech.
Most of the helping professions/allied health fields require a masters to get certified-- and many of these fields are predominantly female. Egg meet chicken.
I saw an analysis at one time which showed that superintendents of large school systems, chancellors of education/state commissioners of education (at least at the time) were mostly male, even though ed schools (both master’s and doctorate level) skewed female. So at some point during their climb, the women interested in educational administration ended up as principals of schools or superintendents of small districts (i.e. paid less) whereas the men (fewer of them to begin with) ended up in the bigger, more lucrative jobs. Some of this is self-selection- a person who is not geographically mobile (moving from Miami to LA, or Minneapolis to NY) is going to cap themselves professionally. And historically, women have been less willing to relocate mid-career than men have been (although that is changing as well.) But some of it reflects same-old/same old. Women enter med school in larger numbers than men, but are ending up in the lower paying primary care roles (i.e. pediatrics) whereas men are ending up in cardiology and neuro.
Chicken , meet egg.
Yes education has always been a predominantly female career choice so women ending up in higher education is no surprise to me. The work schedules are also friendly to families raising families both in K-12 and in the college setting and getting an advanced degree is not as unusual as it was decades past.
Re: post #10, from Wikipedia:
“Cornell was among the first universities in the United States to admit women alongside men. The first woman was admitted to Cornell in 1870, although the university did not yet have a women’s dormitory. On February 13, 1872, Cornell’s Board of Trustees accepted an offer of $250,000 from Henry W. Sage to build such a dormitory. During the construction of Sage College (now home to the Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management as Sage Hall) and after its opening in 1875, the admittance of women to Cornell continued to increase.”