006. Week Three of Classes and Settling In

Week three of class is over, and I’m finally settling into the routine of night classes and a three hour daily commute (thanks to new playlists to jam to on the commute). 

My Tuesday night class is on student development, and it’s an amazing course. This week we had a student panel of five seniors at the university come in to answer questions, and then after they left we discussed the various cognitive and moral development theories we’ve been studying and how it applies to them. Without going into too much detail, since they revealed a lot of information about themselves and it’s confidential, it was really nice to be able to relate the development theories (i.e. Perry, etc.) we’ve been learning to the stages they went through as students. For example, one student was discussing his study abroad experience during his junior year and how that was really a trigger point for his growth and maturation. It also made me realize that I never had an experience like that - I feel like I was actually a lot more independent when I came to college than I am now (considering I’m writing this from the recliner in my parents’ living room), and that I’ve been stalling my development, especially the past few years. I need to work on that. I need to learn to go outside my comfort zone. Hearing these students talk about their experiences made me reevaluate some of the things in my own development (i.e. how important it is I move out soon), and think about things I haven’t really given much thought to in the past. The whole class was really interesting.

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Gender and College Admissions

Back in the fall of 2007, when I was working diligently on college applications, I tried to base the colleges I was applying to on location, academic reputation and the likelihood that I would get scholarships and financial aid. I expected those colleges to base their decision on whether or not I’d be accepted on my GPA, SAT scores, recommendations, etc. I never once thought that my gender could play a role. After all, it’s the 21st century. 

So when I read this article, I was extremely surprised that colleges would ever consider gender as part of the equation. Shouldn’t it be based on achievement? And if you’re going to help anyone based on race, class and gender… shouldn’t it be those who have historically been discriminated against and who have been fighting for equality for years?

Well, it turns out colleges have been having an interesting problem: too many qualified female applicants. So what does this mean? “In practical terms, in the past decade, female applicants have faced an admissions rate that is an average 13 percentage points lower than that of their male peers just for the sake of keeping that girl-boy balance.”

So, in a time when the majority of CEOs and people in power are men, are colleges making sure that women don’t outnumber men? I feel conflicted by this information because I want parity, but if more women are qualified to attend elite universities, they should be able to regardless of the number of qualified men. Women are underrepresented in plenty of professional areas and having more women graduating from elite universities could possibly help this issue. But, the main question I have is why are men falling behind academically?

This article tackles the question by stating “differences” between the genders: “From the early grades on up, girls tend to be better students. By the time college admissions come into the picture, many watchers of the “boy gap” agree, it’s too late for the lads to catch up on their own. Indeed, beginning in those formative K-12 years, girls watch less television, spend less time playing sports, and are far less likely to find themselves in detention. They are more likely to participate in drama, art, and music classes - extracurriculars that are catnip for admissions officers. Across the board, girls study more, score better, and are less likely to find themselves in special education classes.”

Now, I truly believe there has to be more to this story. What is our society doing wrong to young boys that leads them to play so many sports, study less, watch more TV and end up in detention? 

As I searched for literature on this specific subject, I realized that most researchers have focused their attention on how women have been disadvantaged in higher education. Specifically, the main topics heavily researched are gender segregation in majors (1), women’s under-representation at top tier universities (2), and their underrepresentation in science and engineering (3) (4).

As Jackson Katz, in his documentary Tough Guise, described, issues with the dominant groups often go unexamined. The focus is always on a historically subordinated group and their shortcomings. This allows “the dominant group to remain invisible and protects the status quo.” In doing this, a disservice is being done to members of the historically dominant group. In this case, instead of making boys falling behind academically the main issue, instead it’s a question about girls. The literature that I did find that related to this issue, still focused on what was different about women that allowed them to overcome and reverse the gender gap in higher education.

In 1960, 65% of all bachelor’s degrees were awarded to men. By 2004, women received 58% of all bachelor’s degrees (4). Are women performing better academically now than they were 50 years ago?

In some regards yes, Hedges and Nowell (1995) studied data from 1960 to 1992 and found more variance in achievements tests for males. They also saw a gradual decrease in the male advantage in math and science, but no change in the female advantage in tests of reading and writing ability.

On the other hand, Alexander and Eckland (1974) showed that “despite female advantages in academic performance in high school, females from the class of 1972 were less likely to enroll in college than males” (4).

Girls have been outperforming boys academically in subjects they previously excelled in, as well as performing better in math and science. 

What are girls doing differently to help them academically? It appears that it is their behavior in and outside of the academic setting that is putting the girls at an advantage. Teachers have consistently rated girls as putting forth more effort and being less disruptive (5). These behaviors are learned and part of the gender schemas we learn from the time we are born. What is encouraged for girls is different than what is encouraged for boys. We tend to allow more rowdy behaviors from boys because it is what we expect of them. At the same time, we may also be teaching boys that disruptive behavior is a good way of getting attention, and without meaning to, reinforcing the behavior (6). Plus what our culture, especially through our media, is teaching boys is that being a man means being tough, strong and fitting into our narrow definition of ideal masculinity (7). 

Our culture is encouraging boys to play sports, be tough, and be manly. Is there room for academics in the current definition of masculinity? Young boys may be taking into account what’s socially acceptable or preferred when choosing between reading a book or playing football with his friends. Our culture encourages sports and competition and doesn’t focus enough time on academic achievement. This has been acknowledged even by a sports writer, ESPN writer LZ Granderson in his opinion article explaining why he’s encouraging his son to be “a nerd.” He admits that our culture emphasizes athletics over academics. 

So the problem of not enough qualified male applicants that universities are facing will not go away unless we make a change in the way we develop gender schemas in our children. Universities are going to continue to find ways of maintaining their campus population close to a 50/50 male/female split.

Recommended reading: Annual Review Gender Inequalities in Education

1. Charles & Bradley, 2002; Jacobs, 1995; Turner & Bowen, 1999

2. Jacobs, 1999

3. Fox, 2001; Long, 2001; Xie and Shauman, 2003

4. Buchmann, C. & DiPrete, T.A. (2006). The growing female advantage in college completion: The role of family background and academic achievement. American Sociological Review, 71, 515-541.

5. Downey & Vogt Yuan, 2005

6. Virginia Valian, “Why so slow?”

7. Jackson Katz, Tough Guise