Where have all the guys gone? Look around. At lecture halls and classrooms here at NYIT and all over the country, the percentage of women students is growing. Could it be a new gender gap evolving?
Women have represented about 57 percent of enrollments at American Colleges since at least 2000, according to a recent report by the American Council on Education. Researchers there cite several reasons: women tend to have higher grades, men tend to drop out in disproportionate numbers, and more men are likely to be affected by the disadvantage of growing up in a household with a low educated or absent father. Certainly women are primarily in college not because they are looking for men, but because they want to earn a degree.
As compared to the 1950s and 1960s, many young women were not going to college or were dropping out to get married. During that time, males, who were often considered family "bread winners," made up the majority on college campuses as college was the path to career advancement and higher salaries. But by the mid 1980s the trend began to change; more women began taking advantage of a college education, which according to www.pbs.org, is a movement that is growing faster for women than for men.
This gender gap can be a problem, but ultimately it's a female success story. The ratio of more females to males has been noticed at the University of North Carolina, New York University, University of Vermont, and the College of Charleston. But the gender gap has not gone universal; Ivy League schools are still largely equal in gender.
So what paths are women choosing to study in college? According to www.forbes.com "research has shown that women tend to gravitate toward fields of studies where they can have a positive social impact and work with others, often collaboratively." This is why many women are seen in fields like healthcare, business, and education. With these majors, common career paths include those in nursing, physical therapy, teaching, and administrative and accountant positions. Still, engineering and computer sciences are majors that remain overwhelmingly dominated by males.
No one has been able to pin-point the exact reason for this trend--even with research, statistics, and theories. The effect of larger female populations in colleges could potentially cause some noticeable changes, including the types of courses or programs offered. The influx of female students has already led to women's studies departments or majors and more diverse classes. If women continue to make up the college student majority, colleges and universities will eventually have to confront the question of how social life on campus will change without so many guys. With that said, the empowerment of women in the workforce has dramatically changed overtime, as millions of women once dependent on men are now taking control of their own economic fates.
Female students from NYIT offer their thoughts on this newly recognized gender gap. Katie O'Rourke, a sophomore interdisciplinary studies major said, "I think it's great that plenty of young women are looking to further their education, while most of the men are avoiding the four year degree because there's a lot of uncertainty in the job market right now. Perhaps some men are working now to save up for school for when things start to look up in terms of the economy." Dianne Reitberger, a sophomore Biology and Life Sciences major says, "I believe guys have more of an idea that they are supposed to have hands-on-jobs that are in the trade school area...young women feel the need to be well educated and go to college, taking the opportunities in this day and age so they don't need to rely on someone else financially in the future."
So what did the males students at NYIT have to say about this? Billy Haiduk, a junior accounting major said "I believe it's a good thing seeing more women working hard to attain higher positions in the workforce; it's a step in the positive direction for our society. For males, I think the cost of living is the main reason [for not attending college], especially on Long Island. It is also easier to graduate high school and start working in a construction company, get paid with benefits, or join a union and have school paid for you. There's also the military...and in a time of war it's a serious consideration for male students who don't want to go to college."
The last perspective came from NYIT's Dean of Admissions, Ms. Stacey Munsky-Acquaro who said, "At NYIT we have very specific schools of majors, and we do try to help break that barrier and keep women career focused no matter what their major is." She continues on to describe an evident change in the traditionally male-dominated major of engineering, which has seen an increase in female enrollment. "Last year a Robotics Competition was held at NYIT and each team had to have one female on each team...that closes the [gender] gap in that regard." The School of Engineering and Computing Sciences also just got a new dean who happens to be a female. Munsky-Acquaro explains that the gender ratio on campus balances itself out in majors like nursing, education, and business, saying, "Future missions at NYIT will certainly help to close the gap with these professions."
According to www.census.gov, as of October 2009, the estimated number of females in the population is 155.8 million versus 151.8 million males. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, by 2011 there will be 2.6 million women studying in American Universities. In honor of the impact that women have left and will continue to make on our country, March is known as Women's History Month. The purpose is to take one month of the year to remember and reflect upon the contributions of notable women such as Sally Ride, Hillary Clinton, and Rose Parks, who serve as inspiration to all the extraordinary females of tomorrow.
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