Friday, February 11, 2011

Huge Gender Degree Gap at Ages 22-23: National Crisis, Title IX, Government Funding? Probably Not

According to a report released this week by the BLS:

"At age 23, there is a clear gender gap in educational attainment. While nearly 1 in 4 women had earned a bachelor’s degree by the October when they were age 23, only 1 in 7 men had done so, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported (see chart above). Additionally, the same percentage of men and women, 16 percent, were enrolled in college at age 23, so it is unlikely the gap in educational attainment will close in the next few years." 

MP: The BLS also reported that at age 22, 12.7% of women had earned a bachelor's degree compared to only 6.8% of men at that age. In other words, at age 22, there are 187 women holding a Bachelor's degree (or more) for every 100 men who have graduated from college.  By age 23, there are 164 women with a bachelor's degree for every 100 men, and that degree gap won't likely change much at later ages because the same percentage of women and men (16%) are enrolled in college at age 23.   

Now that's a huge gender disparity in college completion at ages 22 and 23, but I predict:

1. This gender degree gap will receive almost no media attention, and certainly no attention from the gender activists, who demonstrate a selective concern for only those gender imbalances that favor men.


2. There will be no calls for government studies, or increased government funding to address the problem, and nobody will refer to this persistent gender degree gap as a "crisis."

3. President Obama will not address the issue by signing an Executive Order creating a "White House Council on Men and Boys," like he did for
women and girls.

4. Neither Obama nor Congress will address the gender degree gap by invoking the Title IX gender-equity law, like they have threatened for the gender gap in some college math and science programs.


5. Nobody will blame the gender degree gap on structural barriers from grades K-12 that discourage men from attending or graduating from college, like they do for explaining the gender gap for women in math and science


In other words, the standard "disparity-proves-discrimination" dogma will not be applied in this case of a huge gender imbalance in college completion by ages 22-23, because the disparity favors women, not men. But consider what happens when the disparity favors men, and this is just one example of many:

NY Times: "Women make up 46% of the American workforce but hold just 25% of the jobs in engineering, technology and science, according to the National Science Foundation. To Sally K. Ride, a former astronaut, that persistent gender gap is a national crisis that will prove to be deeply detrimental to America’s global competitiveness."

5 Comments:

At 2/11/2011 8:38 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

How does the sex of an engineer improve competitiveness? That seems about as stupid as claiming (as the usual suspects do) the race of an engineer improves competitiveness.

 
At 2/11/2011 9:16 PM, Blogger Liberal Stupidity said...

Man Mark! You sure know how to dig up some obscure stats, and turn them into very relevant, easy to understand posts. Great Job!

http://liberallystupid.blogspot.com/

 
At 2/11/2011 9:21 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Eh, so more women fall for the college scam than men. If anything, they should examine why women are more prone to fall for this scam. On the other hand, their unemployment rates are half that of men too, so it seems to be working out fine for them so far. But that's only because of the predominance of traditionally female-leaning markets like education and medicine right now, with govt support of course, but which are about to be destroyed by the internet, so it won't last.

 
At 2/11/2011 10:03 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

If anything, they should examine why women are more prone to fall for this scam.

Credentialism. In the government-supported non-productive professions preferred by women, credentials are much more important than competence and accomplishment.

 
At 2/12/2011 7:58 AM, Blogger H.A. Black said...

Mark, The disparity is even greater in black colleges where women outnumber men two to one. Eventually this will be a social problem. Women typically will not want to marry men with less education. Education will then have even greater benefits for men.

 

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