CAROL’S SUMMARY:
There are more men than women ages 18-24 in the USA — 15 million vs. 14.2 million, according to a Census Bureau estimate last year. But nationally, the male/female ratio on campus today is 43/57, a reversal from the late 1960s and well beyond the nearly even splits of the mid-1970s. The National Center for Education reports the number of females attending college in 2004 surpassed males by about 200,000 nationwide. According to a new study, “Gender Equity in Higher Education: 2010†by the American Council on Education, that gap has remained steady, however, the enrollment disparity between Hispanic men and women has continued to increase with enrollment of undergraduate Hispanic men ages 24 or younger dropping from 45 percent to 42 percent between 1999 and 2007, according to this same study. The percentage of undergraduates at community and four-year colleges who were male hovered between 42 percent and 44 percent from the 1995-1996 academic year to 2007-2008, the last year for which data was available, says the report. Fewer than half of foreign-born Hispanic men who live in the United States complete high school.
Jacqueline E. King, assistant vice president for policy analysis at the council and author of the report, added, “There has been some anecdotal evidence coming in from community colleges saying that since the recession, they’ve seen enrollment of non-traditional-aged men expanding pretty rapidly. They’ve been laid off or they’re worried about being laid off, so the job market is pushing them to upgrade.” King also found that 68 percent of college enrollees from low-income families were female; only 31 percent were male.
How can we do a better job getting Latin males into the college pipeline starting in middle and secondary schools?
What pedagogical approaches might need to be put in place that honor the different learning preferences between boys and girls?
How can we draw more men to the teaching profession who in turn become role models for boys?
ARTICLE:
The Chronicle of Higher Education
January 26, 2010
Female Undergraduates Continue to Outnumber Men, but Gap Holds Steady
By Andrea Fuller
The gender gap in undergraduate enrollment appears to have stopped widening for most groups, according to a report being released on Tuesday by the American Council on Education.
The percentage of undergraduates at community and four-year colleges who were male hovered between 42 percent and 44 percent from the 1995-1996 academic year to 2007-2008, the last year for which data was available, says the report, “Gender Equity in Higher Education: 2010.” Among undergraduates who were black or age 25 and older, even smaller proportions were male, but the ratio of women to men in those groups was relatively stable over that same time frame.
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