Gender Dynamics in College Education - Case Study Example

Gender Dynamics in College Education. Education for a long time has been associated with acquisition of the skills and knowledge which in turn translate into economic growth and increased political participation. At the same time, the dynamics of gender roles and representation have persistently entered and manifested in the educational system resulting in historical trends of inequality. A lot of policy and social discussions are now focusing on gender representation and the impact of policy shifts on the attainment of college education among the different genders. Traditionally this was a bastion for males, but modernization and policy reforms have seen our educational systems increasingly welcome equal participation of female students especially starting in the last of the 20th century. The period starting the year 1981 has seen women clearly earn most of the baccalaureate degrees in America. In fact as at 2003, the enrolment ratios for higher education stood at 1.3 female students for every one male student and in the 2012/2013 female students accounted for 57 percent of the overall college enrolments in the United States. In this paper I discuss the gender dynamics of representation in our college education and changes that are ongoing. A number of reasons explain the differences in gender representation in education especially at college level. The period after the Second World War saw changes in American policies that encouraged massive access to college education which in turn influence a major shift in terms of gender dynamics. In the beginning, the G.I bill greatly increased educational opportunities for the male student leading to an inevitable situation of male domination in the American higher educational space. The trend was to be reversed later by federal legislations and financial aid which opened opportunities for the greater participation of females in college with the ultimate effect of eliminating the gender gap that existed favor of men. This alongside many other developments have conspired to only reverse gender inequalities in the curriculum that hitherto adversely affected the participation of women but have given birth to another trend in which females are now seen to dominate. Before the middle of the 20th century, the educational policies in the United States were very limited in terms of supporting individuals who needed to further their education past the secondary school level. This made higher education to remain a privilege that was mostly pursued by the elite up to the year 1940. Things change in 1944 following the G.I Bill which assisted over two million individuals returning home from the Second World War join college for further education or follow vocational trainings. This had the effect of opening doors students from the low and middle class backgrounds to pursue college studies leading encouraging mass educational access. The unfortunate aspect is that the bill served to widen the gender gap in college enrolments as a whole 97 percent of those who benefitted was males. There is no other way to show our own policies have supported gender inequality in educational participation (Deondra, 2014). In order to attend pursue college education; women who had no access to the bill were required to have private sources of funds. At the same time many of the families devoted much of their financial resources to the education of the boy child on the premise that females were more likely to exit employment on getting married and end up wasting their education. Females were also presented with fewer opportunities of working, they were largely excluded from financial sources such as private scholarships and were even discriminated against in terms admissions to colleges through the quota system. For instance, in the year 1964 alone, two thousand one hundred females applying to pursue college education in the state of Virginia were not granted while all males who applied for admission were grated. This shows how our patriarchic society characterized by gendered roles has directly contributed to the historical inequalities occurring in the higher education system in terms of gender representation. It means the problem is rooted in the society and the school being a microcosm of society, the challenges of gender equality in the educational systems are just a proliferation of a wider problem from the society Given the many the challenges baring the full participation in college education and contributing to gender inequalities which were carried on to the labor market, it goes without say that approximately one third of potentially super achieving women could fully utilize their potential. . This is because it was significantly difficult, in fact almost impossible for them to enter colleges and pursue education in the career fields of their desire especially in the period spanning the years 945 to 9160. Over the same period just a paltry 10% of their male counterparts from low income backgrounds were completely unable to pursue their college education for lack of the required financial resources. Indeed the participation of women in higher education has been historically marred by a myriad of challenges working to prevent their educational attainment and ultimately translating into their limited political participation as well as employability. Efforts at the level of federal government opened opportunities for the full participation of females in college education in the 1950s. Legislations passes later in the 50s saw women seeking to pursue college education greatly advantaged by dealing a significant blow at discrimination. The very first blow against inequality and gender based discrimination in college education, in the form of the requirement for higher education student loans and financial grants to be administered with neutrality. The National Defense Education Act passed in 1958 for instance availed loans for female students hoping to attend college and as a result thousands of women were able to pursue college degrees. The Higher Education of the year 1965 expanded availability of the loans and compelled the availability of Pell Grants all students who are needy. This saw well above 2 million female and male students easily access college education as they were able to access the much needed financial aid. Statistics from the Department of Education show that females began accessing more federal financial assistance especially in the 1980s. Findings of a studied that was carried out in 2008 indicate that until the reversal of the effects of G.I bill, most financial federal educational financial assistance went to men. But for the younger generations i.e. in the range of 18 to 35 years of age at the study time, a whopping 58% of the females accessed aid while only 46% of males did. Additionally statistical figures have indicated that both males and females who receive federal educational loans increase their chances of completing their degree courses by 15%. As for those receiving Pell Grants, male students increase their chances of earning a degree by 12% while the attainment in females only increases by a paltry 8%. The statics represent an interesting shift in the gender dynamics of college education but overall show that the education acts have had a tremendously positive impact in terms of bridging the gender gap in our college education system (Sax, 2008). Another federal blow at gender based inequality in colleges was dealt through regulations. The early 70s saw federal aid make it easily affordable anyone intending to pursue college education, yet female applicants were still faced with the hurdle of gaining admission. Based on the conventional knowledge of males being bread winners traditionally, most colleges placed admissions requirements for females higher in terms of grades. The year 1972’s Title IX, was a major policy improvement that significantly challenged the many barriers that females students had to encounter in terms of equal representation. The effects of Title IX were dramatically fled in college education at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. For example, prior to Title IX, only 9% of all the degrees in medicine and 7% in law conferred in the US went to women. Things change after the amendments significantly; as at the year 1997 the percentage of female attainment in the same fields had shot upwards by 38% and 43% respectively. What the statistics mean in the long run is that policy changes especially on financial assistance as well as national regulations have opened doors for females to outdo their male counterparts in attaining of college education. The question of race and gender has not been left out when it comes to representation in colleges. It is until the year 1980 for instance that female attainment surpassed that of males among the whites. The case is slightly different when it comes to the American blacks; growth rates in attainment among black females and males was very little and females were more represented than their male counterparts especially in southern states. The rate completion for black males has been historically constrained by limited resources. Despite the fact that the G.I bill was gender neutral, many states invested little or none at all in the colleges attended by blacks. Black males have also for a very long faced racial discrimination which in some instances has seen majority of them in prison as compared to those in schools and colleges. Black females’ participation in education and labor force on the other hand has higher for a long time as compared to while females and black males. This is largely because most black women having come from low economic and social backgrounds are naturally harder working (McDaniel et al, 2009). A growing modern trend in college education has shown females being higher in attaining college degrees than males on the overall. Males have been found to have higher chances of delaying enrolment to college than males yet research shows that enrolling directly to a college on completing high school increases the chances of completion. Among the students who joined college in the year 2000, completion rate for males was 60% while that for females stood at 66%. The gendered gap when it comes to enrolment is largely as a result of males delaying in high school. the delayed graduation from high school among male students on the other hand could be due to a number of reasons: i.e. boys are more likely to start elementary education late, their rate of grade retention during elementary school is higher, they are more likely to drop out of school and rely highly on GED to finish their secondary school studies when compared to girls (Snyder et al. 2008). Even on enrolling as students in college, females complete their degrees faster than males. For instance of all college enrolments in 1995, 66 percent of the females and 59 percent of males were through with the degree course as at 2001. in terms of race, over the same period completion rate among women was 71% for whites and 50% for blacks while in males it stood at 62% for whites and 37% for blacks. In an article by the New York Times in 2006, Tamar Lewin, male students account for just 42% percent of college attendance currently in the United States. Discrimination based on gender has continued to fade while educational opportunities for women are on the increase. This has made females students stronger as compared to their male counterparts in terms of performance even in science subjects. The gendered disparities vary by class; in those families that with high incomes for instance, attainment of college education among women and men is almost equal. The case is different in the low income earning families which are largely composed of blacks and Hispanics. Statics show that in these families the gender gap is widest with males being conspicuously underrepresented in colleges. This is also true in middle income families where the females are again observed to attend college at higher rates than they brothers. The numbers are shouting and everywhere you go the message is the same: females are outnumbering males in educational attainment. As part of my research, I interviewed a number of students on college on the reasons behind the gendered distribution of students and more specifically females outperforming males. It appears that female students have a more vigorous drive for education and have more passion for strong careers in future. Masculinity is a factor that significantly contributes to the overturning gender dynamics in college education. Traditionally males dominated the educational and political landscape hence an impression was created that males are smarter. In college therefore most of the male students tend to be relaxed and work less hard as compared to the females. They do not want to hustle as they believe they are naturally better than women in anything. The end result of this is that performance has turned in favor of female students in most subjects even sciences which were traditionally thought of as being the preserve of men. Statistics on related performance in terms of subjects show a clear performance inclination in the direction of women. It was common for males to dominate subjects such as mathematics and sciences for they were considered intellectually superior to females. These subjects also led to careers which are characteristically technical and therefore fewer females preferred them. Females dominated fields such as art and social sciences; those who were courageous enough to take science subjects were in biological sciences leading to courses in female associated disciplines such as nursing. The case has significantly changed and the trend continues to turn in a different direction. As much as the best students in disciplines such as engineering and computer science, the number of females who take the courses are fast increasing and outnumbering those of males. Females now perform equally the same as males in STEM subjects and in the recent times better. The reality today is that men now dominated the art and social sciences and this is largely attributed to the less hustle attitude. In conclusion therefore, college education in the United States has undergone a lot of change. The case is the same with the representation of gender in colleges; our society being patriarchic, education was traditionally a preserve of men. This resulted in a lot of discrimination in the educational system that openly favored the male child leading to male domination not only in the academic field but also in terms of political participation. Federal laws and regulations that saw an end to discrimination against the girl child in terms of educational opportunities and financial assistance to complete college education have achieved a lot. Events have turned tremendously in favor of women and the trend appears to be permanent. Academic performance among females is increasing very fast while that of men appears to decline. Females are openly outperforming males in terms of college participation; there is no doubt the number of female college students in the united states is higher than that of men. Underrepresentation is more among males from low earning families who are majorly black and Hispanic. Class and race therefore come into play again when looking at the gender dynamics of college education. Works Cited. 1. Anne McDaniel, Thomas A. DiPrete, Claudia Buchmann and Uri, Shwed. “The Black Gender Gap in Educational Attainment: Historical Trends and Racial Comparisons.” Columbia University, 2009. Available at: http://www.columbia.edu/~tad61/Race%20Paper%2009232009.pdf 2. Claudia Goldin. “A Grand Gender Convergence: Its Last Chapter.” American Economic Review, 2014. Available at : http://scholar.harvard.edu/files/goldin/files/goldin_aeapress_2014_1.pdf 3. Deondra Rose. How Federal Government Policies have Helped Women Earn College Degrees. Scholars Strategy Network, 2014. Available at: http://www.scholarsstrategynetwork.org/sites/default/files/ssn_key_findings_rose_on_gender_equality_in_higher_education.pdf 4. Linda J. Sax. The Gender Gap in College: Maximizing the Developmental Potential of Women and Men. Jossey Bass, 1st Edition, 2008. 5. Mulligan, Casey B., and Yona Rubinstein. “Family Investment in Human Capital: Earnings of Women.” Journal of Political Economy, 82 (2), 2008. 6. Tamar Lewin. “At Colleges, Women are Leaving Men in the Dust.” The New York Times, 2006. Available at: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/09/education/09college.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0 7. Niederle, Muriel, and Lise Vesterlund.. “Do Women Shy Away from Competition? Do Men Compete Too Much?” Quarterly Journal of Economics, 2007 122 (3): 1067–1101 Read More