Educational Trends: U.S. Women

Education Trends SOS 492 WA 3 social sciences What are the education trends of women in the United States? One of the most surprising and significant recent trends in higher education in the United States is that women now make up a larger percentage of college students and graduates than men; once upon a time there were jokes that women merely went to college to obtain their 'MRS.' Today, that could not be farther from the truth.

"Both men and women complete more schooling now than in the past, but beginning in the mid-1980s, women's college completion rates began to surpass men's in the United States" (Schwartz & Han 2014: 605). There is increasing evidence that women regard education as critical for personal advancement and economic stability. "Among whites in 2006, women obtain 57% of bachelor's degrees while among Blacks, women receiving bachelor's degrees made up 66% of college graduates. The Hispanic population was also in that range, as 61% of Hispanic college graduates were women" (Wilson 2013).

However, although women are graduating at higher rates than their male colleagues, they still lag behind men with college degrees in terms of their earning power. Due to the racial disparities in these statistics, a number of public figures, including President Obama, have specifically targeted young black men as in need of assistance with the process of navigating high school and college. But "the growing gender gap in college enrollment is not limited to Hispanic and black youth.

In 1994, among high school graduates, 62% of young white men and 66% of young white women were enrolled in college immediately after graduation -- a four percentage point gender gap. In 2012, that gap had grown to 10 percentage points as the share of young white women enrolled in college grew to 72% while the rate for men remained the same" (Lopez & Barrea 2014).

Although the gender gap is magnified within certain racial groups (and is less manifest amongst Asian-Americans) its persistence holds true across Caucasian, Black, and Latino demographics, all of which have very different educational histories within the context of the U.S. The gap between male and female enrollment and graduation in college is clearly complex, and a number of different causes have been suggested, spanning from greater opportunities for women and the fact that behavioral and disciplinary issues with young boys inhibit educational advancement (Lopez & Barrea 2014).

Yet the pay gap between women and men who do manage to attain higher degrees remains. One reason for this may be due to the fact that, although more and more women are obtaining higher education, there is still a disproportionate number of men in the sciences and other high income-yielding fields. In fact, as some scientific fields such as computer science have become more prestigious, fewer rather than more women emerge with degrees in these areas.

Today, "only 18% of computer science graduates in the United States are women, down from 37% in 1985" (Miller 2014). Some colleges have specifically targeted women as recruits in their computer science and engineering programs, including the University of Washington, Harvey Mudd, and Carnegie Mellon University where "40% of incoming freshmen to the School of Computer Science are women" (Miller 2014). The most successful programs at recruiting women made a commitment to changing the curriculum, often emphasizing creative problem-solving vs. pure coding (Miller 2014).

There is an inconsistent trend in women's economic advancement: on the whole more women are earning college degrees, suggesting a kind of a need for 'affirmative action' in reverse for males, yet in high-income fields which would truly allow women to break the glass ceiling, women have yet to attain parity except in programs which have made specific commitments to recruit women.

The lack of preparation for lucrative jobs may be one of the reasons that women have yet to attain income equity with their male peers in most major industrialized countries, even when they possess the same level of education "women ages 30 -- 44 had earnings which ranged from about 49 to 76% of those of males" (Bae et al. 2000: 94). During elementary school, girls are notably stronger than boys across all subject levels and are also less likely to exhibit symptoms of learning disabilities.

"Evidence suggests that girls are perceived as adjusting more readily than boys to formal schooling. Among children in grades 1 -- 3 in 1995, girls were more likely than boys to be described by their parents as near the top of their class…girls were less likely than boys to have their parents contacted by their schools about problems with their behavior or school-work" (Bae 2000: 3). Even in high school, girls are more likely to take Advanced Placement (AP) exams and score 3 or better than boys.

"Beginning in 1971 and continuing through every year of assessment, females ages 9, 13, and 17 have tested higher than their male peers in reading assessments administered as part of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP)" (Bae 2000: 4). It is in high school that the math-science gap begins to emerge. In one international study, "boys and girls performed similarly in mathematics and science around the 4th grade in about half of the countries, with differences emerging more systematically among older students" (Bae 2000: 4).

In college, "in terms of major choice, women and men continue to pursue traditionally gendered majors. Typically female dominated fields include: foreign language, education, sociology, psychology, and English. On the opposite end of the spectrum, male dominated fields include: physics, chemistry, economics, computer science, and accounting/finance" (Wilson 2013). Even in the life sciences such as biology, the gap between males and females is exacerbated the higher the level of education.

"Fifty-two percent of biology Ph.D.s are women, but their representation shrinks to 39% at the postdoc level, and only 18% at the tenured professor level" (Hu 2014). This 'gender gap' in terms of major choice translates to lower incomes for women because female-'gendered' fields such as social work and education (and even 'soft skills' business degrees like marketing) tend to be less lucrative. "Women make up 56% of workers in the 20 lowest-paid jobs, and just 29% of those in the 20 highest-paid jobs" (Bidwell 2014).

Males outpace females in terms of their earnings over time as well, earning more and more over the years. This has historically been attributed to the fact that women must 'opt out' of the labor force to raise children but the fact that women are disproportionately in majors with low pay and high unemployment rates (resulting in a spottier job history) should not be underestimated.

These discrepancies suggest that to address the inequalities that persist between the genders requires there to be highly specific programs that address specific issues: the problem is not getting more women to attend college, but specific inequalities.