April 2008
Since 1991, the proportion of young women enrolled in college has exceeded the
enrollment rate for young men, and the gap has widened over time.1 In
2005, about 43 percent of women ages 18 to 24 were enrolled in college, compared
with 35 percent of young men.
This represents a major shift in the gender balance at U.S. colleges and
universities. Between 1970 and 2005, the gender composition has shifted to the
extent that women now make up the majority—54 percent—of the 10.8 million young
adults enrolled in college.
Figure 1: Proportion of 18-to-24-Year-Old Men and Women Enrolled in College, 1967-2005
Source: U.S. Census Bureau.
Several reasons have been cited for this crossover, including gender differences
in academic achievement (girls do better in high school than boys), changes in
societal values, and a shift in women’s expectations for future employment.2
Some researchers have focused on these trends as a positive development for
young women, who still lag behind men in labor force participation rates and
earnings.3 Others view these trends as evidence of the growing
social, behavioral, and economic problems facing young men, particularly those
in lower-income groups.4 Some colleges are now actively recruiting
male students in order to bring men’s enrollment rates in line with those of
women.5
Regardless of whether these trends are good or bad, they need to be viewed in a
broader context. In particular, what happens to these highly educated women once
they leave college? And how do these gender differences relate to broader
race/ethnic and state/regional differences in enrollment? Policymakers and
campus officials need to pay attention to these issues before they create new
gender-based recruitment policies and programs.
Colleges need to balance women’s advantage in enrollment rates against their
disadvantage in the post-college labor force. Women’s earnings, relative to
those of men, have not kept up with their gains in educational attainment. In
2005, the median weekly earnings for women working full-time were $585,
comparedwith $722 for men.6 Part of this difference reflects the
higher concentration of men in higher-paying fields, including the natural and
physical sciences, mathematics, and engineering. At the college level, fewer
women than men take courses in science-related fields.
The
U.S. economy can benefit greatly from women’s educational gains, but only if
women are working in occupations that can use their specialized knowledge and
skills.
Another often-overlooked issueis the racial/ethnic variation in college
enrollment rates. Although the gender gap in enrollment has increased in recent
years, it is still much smaller than differences across racial and ethnic
groups. In 2005, enrollment rates ranged from 25 percent among Hispanics to 61
percent among Asian Americans. African Americans also had below-average rates of
college enrollment—10 percentage points below those of non-Hispanic whites.
Note: Data reflect persons ages 18-24 enrolled in college, graduate, or professional
school.Source: U.S. Census Bureau.
Gender differences in enrollment are more pronounced for racial and ethnic
minorities, especially for blacks and Hispanics. Nationwide, there is a 7
percentage-point gap between men and women’s college enrollment rates. For
blacks and Latinos, the gender gap is 9 percentage points.
Recent increases in minority enrollments at U.S. colleges may contribute to the
growing gap between male and female enrollment rates. Between 1993 and 2003,
minority enrollments increased by 51 percent, while the number of white students
increased by only 3 percent.7
For
Asians, the gender gap is reversed. Asian men have higher enrollment rates than
their female counterparts (although women have gained ground in recent years).
The higher concentration of Asians in many large cities on the West Coast
contributes to smaller gender gaps in school enrollment in those areas. For
example, the San Jose metropolitan area, which has one of the largest
concentrations of Asian Americans in the country, has about equal numbers of
male and female college students. Among large metropolitan areas, only Salt Lake
City has a lower female-to-male student ratio.
Asians and Latinos represent the fastest-growing minority groups in the country.
That they have such divergent rates of school enrollment points to the growing
social and economic divide among U.S. minorities-particularly for men in these
groups.
The
gap between male and female enrollment rates also varies in different parts of
the country. Southern states have the largest gender gap in enrollment, with an
average enrollment ratio of 1.4. (A ratio of 1.4 indicates that there are 140
females enrolled in college for every 100 males.) This may reflect the large
concentration of African Americans in these states and the presence of several
historically black colleges and universities, which tend to attract and retain
more women than men. In Arkansas, for example, there are 250 African American
women enrolled in college for every 100 black men. The enrollment ratio for
Hispanics and non-Hispanic whites in Arkansas is much lower, at 1.4 each.
Enrollment ratios are smallest in Colorado, Nevada, and
Utah. Utah has the lowest ratio of any state, at 0.9, indicating that there are
fewer women enrolled than men.
The
wide variations in enrollment levels across states and racial/ethnic groups
suggest that educational policies need to be implemented at the state or college
level in order to meet the needs of all students.
Note: State-level enrollment data are from the 2005 American Community Survey,
which did not collect information for people living in group quarters, including
college dormitories.
This is part of a series of PRB articles about the science and
engineering (S&E) workforce in the United States, funded by the Alfred P. Sloan
Foundation. Additional state-level data on the S&E labor force will be available
this spring, in PRB’s2007 U.S. Population Data Sheet.
Data for this article are based on the Population Reference Bureau’s analysis of
the U.S. Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey and 2005 American Community
Survey.
Population Reference Bureau, February, 2007 https://www.prb.org/crossoverinfemalemalecollegeenrollmentrates/.
Mark Mather is deputy director of
Domestic Programs at the Population Reference Bureau. Dia Adams is a
research assistant in Domestic Programs at PRB.
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