By M.P. McQueen Feb 12, 2010, The Wall Street Journal
The article reports that in 2007, women earned about 166 associates degrees and 135 bachelor’s degrees for every 100 earned by men. This is a dramatic shift in higher education from the past, when men domi
nated degrees. The article notes that this shift has impacted employers and provided more flexibility for women. As more jobs require education, women with degrees have an advantage in the hiring process.January unemployment numbers show seasonally adjusted figures as 10% for adult men compared to 7.9% for adult females. The last time the unemployment rate was equal was in November 2006. Education is making a difference and possibly providing a path to more equality in the workplace.
Much emphasis has gone into getting women into college and these strategies appear to be working. The imbalance this has created will impact the job market, society, and the student affairs in higher education. In a time with higher education budgets are being reduced by the state, tuitions are being raised, and programs are being cut, will institutions reallocate resources to this growing demographic? Institutions may promote less emphasis on math and science programs that fewer women participate in and more on areas that attract a female demographic.
Because of budget decisions, support services needed by female students such as daycare may not be available. Aims Community College recently decided to close their daycare facility or let it be run by a non-college company. Satellite campuses, which may lessen travel, are also being closed. Facilities for resident students also need to be geared towards an increasing female population.
The future job market will change also. More women with degrees will probably lead more women to taking on leadership or management roles. In some areas this may lead to a power shift in the work place as more women take on leadership roles and middle management positions. The degree imbalance will have an impact on society in the future. The degree imbalance has also served to point out the value of a degree.
Good entry. Just a few points of clarification. Women have enrolled in post-secondary institutions in larger numbers than men since the early 1980's, a fact that often gets little attention. The disproportionate number of women has actually led some institutions (mostly small privates) to develop policies intended to increase the number of men they enroll. While it is a good thing that many women are now pursuing degrees, drilling down deeper into the figures reveals that a large percentage of the increase of women is at community colleges (in other words, many of these women are not getting a BA). Also, those that do earn a BA tend to earn them in traditionally 'womanized' fields such as education. The implication of these two facts is that many of these women are still going to be entering the job market in relatively low paying positions, and many will never get a chance at middle-management.
ReplyDeleteMatt
p.s.--- I find it disheartening but not-surprising that AIMS is closing its day-care center. My experience with such centers is that they provide an invaluable service to parents trying to earn a degree. They are expensive to operate, in large part due to the insurance, but are a true source of access to single parents. In my opinion, places that close such centers are making short-sighted decisions.
Matt, I couldn't agree with you more about day-care. It is indeed short-sighted because limiting opportunities for single parents will in turn limit access. If the access is limited, a decrease in motivation to enroll soon follows. We are turning away a significant number of potential students, who if only had cheap and conviently located daycare to watch their children for a few hours a day, would enroll at institutions of higher education and earn their degree.
ReplyDeleteIn the long run Aims Community College could be losing more money by closing the child-care center. Single parents rely on the child-care in order to pursue their degree. The number of unmarried parent students has risen over the last 20 years. More than 50 percent of these parents earn less than $10,000 a year and 38 percent earned less than $5,000 a year. These single parents are working full time to provide of their child. The national statistics indicated that in 2007-2008 three-fourths of all unmarried parents enrolled in college full time and working 15 hours per week. Given this, only 5 percent of single parent students finished a BA in a 6 year span. This confirms that the majority of single parents do not attend higher education because of the child-care issue. With the high rate of high school pregnancies it is imperative to give these young ladies an opportunity to receive a degree, by offering child-care for their child.
ReplyDeleteGoldrick-Rab. (2010). The child-care crisis. http://chronicle.com/blogPost/The-Child-Care-Crisis/21368/
Reading this article I thought about what the change was with the trend of so many women being enrolled in college then men, I came to the conclusion that since the feminist movement of the seventies there has been a dramatic change. Education was an institution that was created, controlled and overrun by men, the seventies changed that. I think it is great that there are now women’s resources and more women getting the equal opportunity for education, but is it wrong to turn it back for equalizing out for men? Or do men not want to fight or care for their education as much as women do? According to an older article by the weekly standard “Today's shortage of men, by contrast, is largely ignored, denied, or covered up. Talk to university administrators, and few will admit that the imbalance is a problem, let alone that they're addressing it. Consider the view of Stephen Farmer, director of undergraduate admissions at the University of North Carolina--Chapel Hill, where this year's enrollment is only 41.6 percent male. "We really have made no attempt to balance the class. We are gender blind in applications, very scrupulously so."
ReplyDeleteWhy the blind devotion to gender--blindness? Because affirmative action for men is politically incorrect, and at universities receiving federal funding like UNC, it's also illegal. "My understanding of Title IX is that an admissions process that advantages men would be very difficult to defend," Farmer says. I don’t think that there needs to be a movement for men to be equal in education but I think something needs to happen to motivate and have incentives for our men to go and complete college. Higher education is for everyone whether it be male, female, black, white, Hispanic etc. As long as there is education provided to some demographic we will prosper, it would just be nice to see an equal trend amongst all groups.
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/006/531ffoaa.asp
Regarding the closure of the Aims early childhood facility - this was a decision that was a long time coming as the program has been reviewed for its vitality on more than one occasion over the past 5 or so years. Aims is in the process of looking for an outside agency to lease the facility in order to keep the center open. I am not sure if I totally agree that the decision is short cited as many times day care costs the same on or off campus. Having an on campus center is one of convenience and not necessarity one oflower cost.
ReplyDeleteNot just single parents have day care problems, a lot of people little kids that needs child care. Greeley does use a lot of extended family to help watch the kids and save money. I believe we will see more of this type of kid care in the future. If Aim's could make money or break even on providing care, I would guess they would stay open, maybe the real issue is people can't afford day care.
ReplyDelete