Is there a crisis in male college-going? Or, as Carine M. Feyten argues in a recent Chronicle opinion, is it the case that “The Boys Are Doing Just Fine”?
Feyten, chancellor and president of Texas Woman’s University, acknowledges the large disparities between men and women in higher education. The difference in the share of bachelor’s degrees going to women and men is in fact wider today than it was in 1972, when Title IX was passed — but in the opposite direction. Certainly, many people back then saw the gender gap as a crisis big enough to justify new legislation and organizing. As well as Title IX, the 1970s saw the passage of the Women’s Education Equity Act, mostly aimed at elementary and secondary schools, and the founding of the National Coalition for Women & Girls in Education.
There are many who, like Feyten, believe that gender inequality in education is a problem only when it is women and girls who are left behind. But given the vital importance of education in the labor market, such inequality matters even when it is men and boys who are trailing. As Francisco Ferreira, Amartya Sen Chair in Inequality Studies at the London School of Economics, writes: “There is now wide consensus that gender inequalities are unfair, and lead to wasted human potential. That remains true when the disadvantaged are boys, as well as girls.”
Feyten is correct that the main reason for the gap in college enrollment and degree attainment is the extraordinary rise in both the absolute numbers and share of women, though it is important to note the dramatic fall in male college enrollment during the Covid-19 pandemic. Even before the pandemic, there was a large gender gap in college enrollment. But just as troubling are the differences in the chances of completing a degree, especially in a timely manner. The four-year graduation rate among women is 10 percentage points higher than for men.
Gender gaps in higher education do not appear out of nowhere. To a large extent they reflect the disparities in the K-12 education system. Girls outperform boys at every stage, and in almost every subject. According to my analysis, two-thirds of the students graduating high school with a GPA in the top 10 percent of the distribution are female. The ratio is reversed at the bottom.
In 2018, 88 percent of girls graduated from high school on time (i.e., four years after enrolling), compared with 82 percent of boys. The male average graduation rate is only a little higher than the 80 percent average among economically disadvantaged students. And, critically, the boys who are struggling most are those from such backgrounds. The poorer the family or the neighborhood, the wider the gender gap in education. “Poverty and exposure to disadvantaged neighborhoods during childhood are particularly harmful for boys,” concludes an NBER working paper co-authored by the Harvard economist Raj Chetty.
Race matters hugely here, too. Black boys and men face the most acute challenge throughout the education system, while Black women are making impressive gains. In recent years, for every BA awarded to a Black man, nearly two went to Black women. This trend persists at even the highest levels of American higher ed. I could go on and on about this data (and in fact I have, in my forthcoming book).
It is certainly true, as Feyten points out, that there remain many challenges for women in the United States. Roughly 30 percent of college presidents are women, for example, up from 21 percent in 2001. But far from simply accepting this inequality, the American Council on Education has launched a concerted campaign, the Moving the Needle initiative, to reach parity in college leadership by 2030.
This is an ambitious goal, but it is perhaps achievable: Half of current college presidents have said they plan to leave their position in the next five years. Colleges have pledged to appoint women to senior positions wherever possible. This is terrific and constitutes a strong response to a real inequality. But where are the equivalent pledges to do better in terms of attracting and retaining male students?
Likewise, as Feyten makes clear, there remains a gender pay gap once men and women start work. And yet it’s important to note that this gap is now in significant part a consequence of women taking more time out of the labor market to care for children. The pay gap is substantially a parenting gap, and while that may stem from traditional expectations, historical inequalities, or personal decisions, it is not necessarily tied to an inability to find fairly compensated work. On the other side of the gender divide, many of the reasonably paid jobs that men used to be able to do with low levels of education are disappearing.
We can think two thoughts at once. Yes, there is more to do to lower the barriers facing women in the labor market — above all, by reducing the trade-off between caring for children and earnings for mothers. But there is also much to be done to address the specific challenges faced by men and boys, including in the education system. To say that only one matters is a false choice.
