The NCAA News - News and Features

The NCAA News -- March 1, 1999

Experts stuck for an answer in explaining growing female enrollment

This year, women are expected to earn more than 57 percent of all bachelor's degrees conferred in the nation.

Considering that women earned 43 percent of the bachelor's degrees in 1970 and less than 24 percent in 1950, it is easy to see how the student population has changed since the days of poodle skirts and varsity letter sweaters.

While census figures show that there are slightly more college-age men than women, the women are going to college in greater numbers. The U.S. Department of Education reports that there were 8.4 million women and only 6.7 million men enrolled in college in 1996, which is the last year for which statistics are available.

The department also reports that the number of men enrolled in higher education declined each year from 1991 to 1995, then rose in 1996. During that time, the number of women enrolled has risen steadily.

A few years ago, several administrators in higher education expressed concern that women were outnumbering men at liberal arts institutions. Most educators' concerns then had to do with providing diversity on campus and retaining programs and departments that have historically had more male enrollment, such as physics or engineering, for example. A bit of discussion touched on institutions' compliance with Title IX, but at that time, the trend was thought to be an issue that would affect small liberal arts colleges -- not large state institutions.

Now, female students outnumber male students in every type of higher education. There are more women than men in public and private institutions, in religiously affiliated institutions, and in four-year and two-year institutions. Also, women make up a greater proportion of part-time students, nontraditional students and African-American students.

The Department of Education now projects that by 2008, there will be 9.2 million women enrolled in undergraduate and graduate programs and only 6.9 million men.

While the reasons for this trend are not entirely clear, there are numerous theories having to do with everything from young men's immaturity to the national unemployment rate and the appeal of technical schools. Others hypothesize that women of all economic classes are more likely to realize the advantages of a college degree.

"The reason (for the trend) is not that young middle-class white guys aren't going to college -- they are," said Jacqueline King, director of federal policy analysis for the American Council on Education. "But in the low-income, adult and minority communities, we have more women going to college."

King dismisses the thought that young men are better able than young women to provide for themselves with less than a college degree.

"There are parts of the country where it's still thought that a union card and a strong back will get you a middle-class living," she said. "If that's the case, (the trend) is because women are not deluding themselves and the men are."

"For some young men, it just takes them longer to wake up and smell the coffee and realize that they need to (go to college) and develop the maturity to do this," King said. "Still, upper class and upper middle-class boys are still doing well and still going on to college."