2008 Woodie Awards
Women outpace men in degrees
Katie Via
Issue date: 2/22/08 Section: News
Originally published: 2/21/08 at 4:04 PM EST
Last update: 2/21/08 at 4:03 PM EST
The surging college enrollment among young women has led to an increase over young men in obtaining bachelor's degrees according to data recently released by the U.S. Census Bureau.
Whether this trend is seen at Plattsburgh State and what its implications are for women in the workforce remain unclear.
Data from the Central Administration Office of Institutional Research show that from 1995 through 2000 the entering classes at PSUC were consistently female dominated with a greater percentage of females graduating within six years.
While this seems a clear indication that women are indeed outpacing men, there are other factors that may contribute to the apparent trend.
"We should also look at which degrees are being sought," said Lynda Ames, a professor of sociology and PSUC's affirmative action officer, said. "Women are still concentrated in 'women's work'."
This can include fields of study such as education and nursing, both of which are prominent at PSUC and may contribute to the gap between male and female enrollment rates.
In Fall 2007, there were 282 female undergraduate students majoring in early childhood education versus 60 male students. This means that females accounted for over 80 percent of the student population majoring in this field.
Other majors, such as computer science and physics, were male dominated, with physics having only one female major.
"It is true that women have made remarkable advances in education. We used to be closed out of colleges and graduate school - now that is much less true. But increases in women's education will not necessarily mean they make more than men," Ames said.
She said one reason for this may be sex-segregation that exists within many occupations.
"While there are a lot more female doctors than there used to be, women are more likely to be pediatricians than brain surgeons. Brain surgeons make more."
Simona Sharoni, associate professor of women's studies at PSUC, said: "Unfortunately the pay gap persists and women tend to report earning less than the men they supervise or getting paid less and told that this is because they didn't negotiate a higher salary when they were hired."
While the discrepancies between men and women's earnings are slowly narrowing, it may often have more to do with the falling wages of men than with equality.
"Men with a high school education used to be able to demand high-paying, unionized, manufacturing jobs. Since that is much less true today, men's average wages have been falling," Ames said.
With so many contributing factors, it's difficult to say exactly how women's advances in education are being seen at PSUC and how they will affect women's pay scales in the working world.
"I applaud the gains women have made in education," Ames said, "but there is a lot more to equality than this."
Whether this trend is seen at Plattsburgh State and what its implications are for women in the workforce remain unclear.
Data from the Central Administration Office of Institutional Research show that from 1995 through 2000 the entering classes at PSUC were consistently female dominated with a greater percentage of females graduating within six years.
While this seems a clear indication that women are indeed outpacing men, there are other factors that may contribute to the apparent trend.
"We should also look at which degrees are being sought," said Lynda Ames, a professor of sociology and PSUC's affirmative action officer, said. "Women are still concentrated in 'women's work'."
This can include fields of study such as education and nursing, both of which are prominent at PSUC and may contribute to the gap between male and female enrollment rates.
In Fall 2007, there were 282 female undergraduate students majoring in early childhood education versus 60 male students. This means that females accounted for over 80 percent of the student population majoring in this field.
Other majors, such as computer science and physics, were male dominated, with physics having only one female major.
"It is true that women have made remarkable advances in education. We used to be closed out of colleges and graduate school - now that is much less true. But increases in women's education will not necessarily mean they make more than men," Ames said.
She said one reason for this may be sex-segregation that exists within many occupations.
"While there are a lot more female doctors than there used to be, women are more likely to be pediatricians than brain surgeons. Brain surgeons make more."
Simona Sharoni, associate professor of women's studies at PSUC, said: "Unfortunately the pay gap persists and women tend to report earning less than the men they supervise or getting paid less and told that this is because they didn't negotiate a higher salary when they were hired."
While the discrepancies between men and women's earnings are slowly narrowing, it may often have more to do with the falling wages of men than with equality.
"Men with a high school education used to be able to demand high-paying, unionized, manufacturing jobs. Since that is much less true today, men's average wages have been falling," Ames said.
With so many contributing factors, it's difficult to say exactly how women's advances in education are being seen at PSUC and how they will affect women's pay scales in the working world.
"I applaud the gains women have made in education," Ames said, "but there is a lot more to equality than this."
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