http://www.aei.org/publication/prediction-no-commencement-speaker-will-mention-this-the-huge-gender-college-degree-gap-favoring-women/
As soon as a read a headline that included “favoring women” I had to click and read, because that is not a headline that comes up often in my day to day browsing. This article focuses on the data published by the US State Department that shows women are earning more degrees than men on a consistent basis from associates degrees to a doctoral degrees. Although hearing these numbers at first made me happy, the author goes further saying that it is possible that women have reached equality, at least in degree earning potential.
I see how at first glance that may be a reasonable conclusion. However, upon further inspection these numbers do not indicate equality. Looking through an intersectional lens, I ask, how many of these women are women of color? How many come from a low socio-economic status? So yes, perhaps a certain type of woman has reached some level of degree equality, but to surmise that universities should begin defunding their women’s success centers is naive. Women’s Centers can provide safe spaces, progressive programming and wonderful network opportunities that women are often informally barred from.
Stepping even further, I would like to ask why this gender gap is so large. Perhaps because of a wage gap that favors men, and disadvantages, women, and even further disadvantages women of color and queer women, women are forced to seek out more credentialing so that they can compete with men in the job market. By looking solely at this degree gender gap, we’re ignoring all the other factors at play, like why people seek accreditation in the first place. We cannot conflate all women into one statistic about higher learning because many voices are missing.
I think you make some great points in this post. Intersectionality is key when determining equality in any category. I also like that you’ve delved into the reasoning why you think women are more likely to get degrees. I agree with you. I think that women know that in order to succeed and advance in a given career, they must be more prepared than their male counterparts because of an unfair job market.
However, more men may be choosing to go to trade school versus earning a college degree, and I wonder if when these numbers are taken into account a more even numerical record emerges.
I also wonder if over time there will be an increase of males graduating with degrees due to a change in the job market. If hiring is increasingly influenced by credentials versus experience, I believe more men will have to receive a college degree and a near-equal balance will show in statistics.