Cultural Anxiety: The Gender Divide in Higher Education
An article in the NYTimes today discusses the current, and increasing, gender divide at colleges. More girls are attending college and girls are graduating earlier than boys. Additionally, girls are getting most post-graduate degrees out there. Regardless, fields such as physics and engineering are still male-dominated. Not to mention that the world is still predominantly patriarchal and misogynistic, a "man's world." So give me a break.
I think that this "crisis" is bogus. I agree with the following statement, taken from the article:
"The idea that girls could be ahead is so shocking that they think it must be a crisis for boys," Ms. Mead said. "I'm troubled by this tone of crisis. Even if you control for the field they're in, boys right out of college make more money than girls ..."
Besides, nobody's pointing a gun at these guys' heads and forcing them to play Halo.
10 comments :
I agree that it's not a crisis, except in the sense that the disparity is larger wtih poor black and Hispanic boys.
But the statistics about engineering and physics are very telling. Rather than blame it on the gender discrimination of the engineering dweebs--who would like nothing more than having a female around--I'd like to think that Larry Summers was, in some ways, right.
That's actually a misquote. (I was trying to find the full text of the speech to post here, but Harvard took it down after he retired.) But if women are scoring lower on the math portion of the SAT, then that's not too far off the mark. Or it could just be that it's a paternalistic and misogynistic test, but that doesn't accout for why they do better on the English part, and it's as sensible as saying I didn't do well in college because it's become a maternalistic institution of vaginal tirany.
I blame it on maturity gaps and role model defecits.
Gotta blame something.
I don't know about men having plenty of role models. I've got, like... Wolverine, and that's about it.
But yeah, it's hardly a crisis.
Yeah, or it could be that Iceland is the exception.
"because all of the U.S.'s presidents and most CEO's and what have you all over the world are female"
What on earth makes those people role models? I have met very few men who look up to Presidents and CEOs.
what's a "role model" anyways? are the big lit. authors men, that young boys are "suppose" to look up to, really role models?
you have a group of men who are alcoholics, gamblers, womanizers; and at best, completely neurotic.
and let's face facts, the few women in the field aren't much better. let's not forget woolf "talked" to birds and ended up killing herself; is that a role model?
someone might aspire to wirte like these people, but i don't think they should be encouraged to live like them.
but, going back to the article (and ignoring the stuff about what gender does better at what subject) could it be that women are doing better in college because there are more women in colleges these days, becasue they are finally encouraged to go? is it that the old stereotypes of women "can only be school teachers and homemakers" is going away and opening up more oppertunities for women that weren't there before? could it be that the stereotype is changing and that, for boys, it is more accepted now that they don't go to college, becasue they can always go to trade school and become a mechanic in "just 16 months"?
i don't know if the article touched on those possiblities, i didn't read the whole thing when i saw how long it was. while my job is slow, i don't have the time to sit there and read all that.
and on a side note: i was just asked by a woman to change the water on the water cooler... weaker sex? hmmmm....
before it gets blown out of porportion, the weaker sex comment was meant as a joke... sorry if it offended anyone.
Since I hoped, in vain, that this discussion wouldn't devolve into a tired debate about "suppressed female voices" in Western lit, it's futile for me to remark that, as someone who owns 4 volumes of Woolf's criticism, she was horrified by so-called "women's lit" and the ascension of hacks for the sake of gender equality.
i can agree with that, natalia, and as for the whole role model issue-- i think you made my point.
"These mothers become role models for their daughters and then they perpetuate the cycle."
it's a societal problem, rather than looking up to rich CEO's, dumb musicians, and paris hilton; parents should be role models. and society, as a whole, should be praising more doctors, educators, and hard working parents. instead of telling parents they need to work more so that they can provide more money for their kids (and not be at home while little jimmy is smoking pot). society wants to make educators freak out about the fcat so that teachers can't do their jobs properly-- which leaves us with paris hilton who doesn't even know the name of our vice president.
of course boys aren't going to college as much, they see lebron james in the nba out of high school, or 50cent rapping and think they can go that route.
meanwhile you have all the party girls of hollywood boozing it up around town becasue she made millions by being in a movie where some guy fucks a pie.
and the result is education constatnly takes a back seat to "following a dream."
to give you a brief example, as i've rambled on long enough;
there was a kid i worked with who found out i was an english major and used to write. he ask me about it and i tell him how i really enjoy some of my english classes. i ask him, "so you like to write? who do you read?"
"oh, no i don't really like reading."
and there you have it... follwoing a dream doesn't involve education anymore, apparently.
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