Today in the United States, there is a pervasive and growing gap in education – the male education gap. Male students underperform and underachieve at every level in the U.S education system, from elementary school to postgrad education. President Joe Biden recently proposed an idea that might help to close this gap; he intends to provide free community college education to every American, up the associate’s degree level. This would mean every American with a high school diploma would be guaranteed to earn an associate’s degree free of charge.
An Examination Of The Male Education Gap
In 2017, The Atlantic took note of the gender disparity in U.S universities, reporting that only 44% of undergraduate students were male. They also note that the U.S Department of Education expected this number to decrease further to 43% by 2026. (No need to wait, this happened already.)
This chart displays undergraduate degrees earned in the U.S during the 2015/2016 academic year by race and gender.
Men are behind in earning both associate’s (2 year) and bachelor’s (4 year) degrees. The associate’s gap is particularly bad- fewer than 40% of Associate’s degrees are earned by men. This means that for every 2 women that earn an associate’s degree, roughly just 1 man does the same.
The question is why, and what can be done about it? And how much benefit might Joe Biden’s proposal to provide free community college bring about? By just how much is money a factor? As it turns out, quite significantly. In early 2021, Hechinger Report released a startling article on the effects of Covid-19 on college enrolment which revealed vast gender differences. The title painted the picture:
The Pandemic is Speeding Up the Mass Disappearance of Men from College
Sure enough, the data supports this. Quoting the article, the decline of male enrolment was more than seven times that of the decline of female enrolment:
“While enrollment in higher education overall fell 2.5 percent in the fall, or by more than 461,000 students compared to the fall of 2019, the decline among men was more than seven times as steep as the decline among women, according to an analysis of figures from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center.“
And many students listed concerns over tuition and money as the primary point of consideration:
“When he and his male classmates talk about going to college, said Debrin Adon, it always comes down to one thing.“We’re more focused on money,” said Adon, 17, a senior at a public high school here. “Like, getting that paycheck, you know?” Whereas, “if I go to college, I’ve got to pay this much and take on all this debt.”
This, as Hechinger Report states in the article, has made the gender gap even worse. In 2020, the male enrolment rate has fallen to just over 40%:
“Women now comprise nearly 60 percent of enrollment in universities and colleges and men just over 40 percent, the research center reports. Fifty years ago, the gender proportions were reversed.“
Once again, the question remains, ‘why’? Why would male high school students be affected more than female high school students? Why would money be a factor if tuition is, assumedly, the same for students regardless of gender? As quoted above, the primary concern for many students is money. Scholarships ease this concern by providing financial assistance. So if one gender received less scholarships, it’s logical to say that gender is more burdened by the costs. This is precisely the case for male students.
Male students are significantly less likely to receive university scholarships
In the U.S, male students only receive 41% of university scholarships, despite, as discussed above, already being a declining minority of students.
So, the group already underrepresented in university receives less scholarships. One might find themselves asking, “does that really make sense? What’s the justification?” And, once again, another question that comes along with such statistic is the question of ‘why’.
There are two main reasons why male students might be awarded fewer scholarships:
- Fewer scholarships for male students are available.
- Fewer male students earn sufficient grades to qualify for scholarships due to biases in grading.
Scholarship equity
To address the first matter, the available of scholarships, it’s difficult to calculate the exact number of gender specific scholarships available, as there are many scholarships available for students across the country. Many scholarships are general scholarships, meaning such scholarships are simply merit-based and open to all students regardless of gender. Many other scholarships are only available to particular students based on uncontrollable factors- in other words how you were born- such as gender.
There have been lawsuits in the past over the disparity in available male scholarships, with many young men feeling lesser opportunity due to fewer being scholarships available. Although it’s difficult to find exact figures, here’s an example of what a male high school senior may find when looking for a scholarship: took a look a gender section of scholarships.com. This is a website that shows college applicants available scholarships they may qualify for, and prospective students can browse by gender. Compare the male vs female sections, and a student will find that there’s only roughly half as many available scholarships for male students:
It might be suggested that more scholarships should be gender neutral, to level the playing field.
Are boys graded fairly?
How about the second point of male students earning lower grades? Perhaps male high school students are simply less likely to achieve qualifying grades necessary to earn a scholarship? Afterall, were that true, there would be no bias or sexism at play, unless boys were achieving lower grades as a result of bias and sexism. As it turns out, evidence suggests that exact trend is happening now- boys are being discriminated against in earning grades in school.
Data shows that boys earn lower grades in all subjects at all ages. However, over the past couple of decades, multiple studies have come out that suggest discrimination may be at play. More than one study have found that teachers give boys lower grades for the same work. These studies find that male students get lower grades than female students for identical work, and that male and female grades become equal when the graders don’t know the gender of the student. Determining the reason for this disparity isn’t easy. Some data suggests it’s a bias of perception over the behavior of male students in the classroom. Other data suggests boys face direct discrimination and are given lower grades on a gender basis. Both theories agree that boys are graded more harshly on a gender basis.
The most thorough and conclusive info on this trend is this study from Camille Terrier from the MIT School of Economics: Boys Lag Behind: How Teachers’ Gender Biases Affect Student Achievement. In the study, Dr. Terrier closely examined controlling factors in what could explain the disparity between the gender gap in grades. The data concluded that there is a clear and definitive trend of bias grading against male students- boys do, in fact, get lower grades for the same work.
What will Biden’s plan do?
Considering the specific disadvantages and obstacles facing high school boys from attending college, Biden’s plan to provide free community college to an associate’s degree level could be an effective means of working towards educational equality, assuming the policy will be implemented in a gender-equal manner. Biden’s plan for free community college won’t entirely close the male education gap. Bachelor’s degrees are unaffected, and the problem starts as early as elementary school. That said, it could be a very good step in the right direction.
Want To Know More About Us?
MenAreHuman.com campaigns to raise awareness of critical human rights issues effecting men, but we need your help. We need people to help write articles for the site, and we are looking to create a team of people to create and manage daily content. If you would like to help, the Men Are Human team is always available through our Discord. We also need to secure our future and promote the site using online advertising, so any donations you would like to make will be gladly received. If you just want to keep up with our articles in future, please check out our Twitter. We are also on Gab if you prefer that.
