Title IX and gender disparities in American educational achievement

Male vs. Female

Is it Harder to Grow Up Male or Female in America?

There is strong evidence that indicates it is no longer a man's world. Women now make up the majority of students in America's colleges and universities in addition to making up the majority of those receiving bachelor and master's degrees. Women are now entering business and law schools in record numbers. Michelle Colin reports that in the United States, women earn 57% of all BA's and 58% of all master's degrees. There are 133 woman getting BA's for every 100 men. By the year 2020 it is projected that there will be 156 women per 100 men earning BA degrees. This paper will examine this phenomenon in light of Title IX of the education amendments of 1972, which opened doors of opportunity for women. (Collin)

Gender Learning Differences

The male and female brains contain inherent differences in their basic structure. Michael Gurian points out that the male brain is 10 to 15 times the weight and volume of the female brain. In the past, social thinkers have used this fact as evidence to support the notion that men are better, smarter, and more capable of doing the most important jobs. In the recent past discussion about the structural differences between male and female brains has been avoided, and even frowned upon. The result is that our current society tries not to tailor child raising techniques toward boys and girls themselves.

In at least seven of the measured brain structures there are structural differences between the male and female brain. Moore and Frost describe the events that make happen. During pregnancy, when the brain and nervous system are being organized, the female cortex (brain) develops earlier than male cortex. In both the male and female brain the left half of the cortex, the part controlling thinking, develops somewhat later than the right, the part that works spatial relationships; however this delay is even more pronounced in the male brain. As a consequence of this when the right side of the male brain is ready to hook up with the left side by sending over connecting nerve fibers, the proper cells don't yet exist on the left, so the fibers go back and instead form connections within the right hemisphere resulting in exceedingly enriched connections within the right.

This structural difference in the male brain results in a predisposition to focus on special relationships and