US College enrollment 60-40 female

[Ivan Seeking]

This fall, women outnumber men on two-year and four-year college campuses by millions. Nearly 60% of students are women while only about 40% are men, an education gap that has been widening for decades.

The problem has become even more acute as total enrollment has fallen by more than a million students over the past five years. The Wall Street Journal reports that "men accounted for 71% of the decline."

A half-century ago, the numbers were almost exactly the opposite, with men making up 60% of incoming freshmen. Back then, America knew why women were outnumbered: Sexist policies and social mores kept women on the sidelines.

Now, there's little research to explain why fewer men are enrolling in higher education. A spokesman for the Department of Education said the agency doesn't have an effort underway to explain what is going on.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/opin...5/college-fewer-men-hurts-america/8278887002/

Where have the men gone and why? 50 years ago the numbers were essentially reversed.

As one writer commented, one of the most dangerous things in the world is a young man with no job, no girlfriend, and no education. And women with college degrees generally reject men without college degrees. So where is this going?

 

[Ivan Seeking]

There is a new motivation for young men to attend college - the women outnumber the men 3:2

 

[PeroK]

It's the same in the UK. The worry now, I guess, is whether this trend continues. Here's a BBC piece on it from 2016:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-37107208

 

[Office_Shredder]

The men haven't gone anywhere

https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2017/11/gender-education-gap/546677/

In 2015, the most recent year for which data is available, 72.5 percent of females who had recently graduated high school were enrolled in a two-year or four-year college, compared to 65.8 percent of men. That’s a big difference from 1967, when 57 percent of recent male high-school grads were in college, compared to 47.2 percent of women.

So I guess one giant trend is women are way more likely to go to college after graduating high school compared to 50 years ago, and men are also more likely, but not that much more likely.

The other issue is graduating high school to begin with

https://www.brookings.edu/blog/up-f...d-gender-gap-in-high-school-graduation-rates/

I feel like a common story here is that men are just deciding not to go to college as much as they used to. I think the data says that story is false. Men are choosing to go to college more frequently than they used to, when they have the opportunity to make that decision.

 

[PeroK]

I feel like a common story here is that men are just deciding not to go to college as much as they used to. I think the data says that story is false.

I don't think anyone is saying that. What's being reported is that 60% of college students are women.

Men are choosing to go to college more frequently than they used to, when they have the opportunity to make that decision.

That's largely irrelevant. The world has moved on in 50 years and we expect more people to go to college now. In the UK, the numbers attending university are much higher than they were 50 years ago.

The growing discrepancy between men and women in education is real - and, IMO, needs to be taken seriously.

 

[Office_Shredder]

I don't think anyone is saying that. What's being reported is that 60% of college students are women.That's largely irrelevant. The world has moved on in 50 years and we expect more people to go to college now. In the UK, the numbers attending university are much higher than they were 50 years ago.

The growing discrepancy between men and women in education is real - and, IMO, needs to be taken seriously.

Sure, but
72.5/(72.5+65.8) is about 52%. So if the first article I linked is right, 80% of the gender gap is driven by graduating high school, not by any decision making about going to college. The end goal might be getting people to go to college, but the focus needs to be shifted a lot earlier in people's education I think.

 

[PeroK]

Sure, but
72.5/(72.5+65.8) is about 52%. So if the first article I linked is right, 80% of the gender gap is driven by graduating high school, not by any decision making about going to college. The end goal might be getting people to go to college, but the focus needs to be shifted a lot earlier in people's education I think.

That's what the BBC article highlighted. Apparently, there's already a discrepancy when children start school at age 4-5!

 

[glappkaeft]

Looking at the data from Statistics Sweden (I can link to it but I assume rather few people here can read it) the cause is very simple, here university students are 65-67% female.

Looking at the 10 most common jobs for men only one (programming) usually requires a university studies, The rest (warehouse and factory workers, carpenters, truck driver, sales, electrician, mechanics, custodian) does not. Of the 10 most common jobs among women seven (various teaching, nursing and office admin jobs) often requires a degree (and some of them did not in the past).

The pattern roughly repeats for less common jobs and also if you look at the most common areas of study (medicine/nursing and social science/economy/law/admin).

 

[Hornbein]

I identify as 65% female.