Joanna
Doug Henwood wrote:
> Chronicle of Higher Education - web daily - February 28, 2005
>
> Women Increase Their Lead Over Men in Bevy of Undergraduate
> Statistics, Report Says
>
> Female students have gone from being a minority to a majority of
> undergraduate enrollments in the United States over the last
> generation, and have increased their preparedness for college work and
> their graduation rates, in many cases besting their male counterparts,
> according to a report released on Friday by the National Center for
> Education Statistics.
>
> The report, which draws on data from government agencies and several
> continuing studies of high-school and college students, also says that
> the trends are more apparent among some racial and socioeconomic
> groups than others. For example, while women made up 56 percent of all
> undergraduates in 2001 (up from 42 percent in 1970), women accounted
> for 63 percent of black students, 62 percent of students over the age
> of 39, and 70 percent of single-parent students.
>
> In terms of academic preparedness, the report says, the number of
> women who took high-school courses of a high "academic intensity"
> lagged behind men as recently as the 1980s. By the 1990s the gap had
> closed.
>
> That degree of preparedness paid off. Until the early 1990s a higher
> proportion of men than women in their late 20s possessed bachelor's
> degrees. Around 1991 or 1992, however, more women than men held
> degrees in that age group, and the gender gap has only widened since
> then. In 2003 women led men, 31 percent to 26 percent, in this category.
>
> The full text of the report, "Gender Differences in Participation and
> Completion of Undergraduate Education and How They Have Changed Over
> Time," is available at the center's Web site
> <http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2005169>.
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