Between the sexes
USA TODAY
Editorial/Opinion
http://usatoday.com/news/opinion/editor ... gaps_x.htm
Posted 12/27/2005 8:02 PM
Jacqueline King is a researcher who carefully sifts data for the American Council on Education in search of trends that colleges and universities might find helpful. One recent discovery jumped out: Over the past eight years, the percentage of middle-class males on campus shifted dramatically downward. Even more surprising, the sharpest drop occurred among white males.
Among college students younger than 25 and from families earning $30,000 to $70,000 annually, half were male in 1996. Last year, that dropped to 43% male. To a data expert accustomed to the drip-drip of annual changes, that's the sound of a waterfall.
For years, King, like others, has seen the declining percentage of males in college as a problem primarily affecting African-Americans. Twice as many black women as black men now attend college.
But her new data plainly show the gender gap spilling into the white middle class. There are 10 million women in college this year, vs. 7.4 million men.
Colleges are keenly aware of this. Some campus populations already are two-thirds female, affecting campus dynamics in ways that eventually will ripple throughout society. More women are getting opportunities once denied to them, but more men face a bleak future in a world that increasingly demands education for success. Educated white women, meanwhile, will have increasing difficulty finding suitable mates, a problem that black women complain about now, as do many women on those female-dominated campuses. Men and women alike will have to worry about their sons' futures.
Evidence of men falling behind is also showing up in literacy rates.
Earlier this month, the Department of Education's National Assessment of Adult Literacy reported that over the past decade, women gained literacy skills while men headed in the opposite direction.
The gap begins to develop long before college. Over the past two months, educators in Maryland, Vermont and Washington discovered large boy/girl literacy gaps among 10th-graders. Tenth-grade girls in Kentucky outnumber males in the top two reading categories by 18 percentage points. Small wonder fewer males go to college.
This is not a zero sum game in which men must lose for women to gain. It is matter of discovering what is driving boys away from education and correcting the problem, much as it was once corrected for girls.
King and other researchers can't pinpoint precise explanations. But taking a hard look at why boys increasingly lack the verbal skills to succeed would be a good place to start.
ah, white male is becoming the new minority