Girls Surpassing Boys In Academia, Still Losing In Workplace
We, the male population, had it coming, I suppose. After centuries of keeping females down with often unjust social mores and often ridiculous fashion demands, we had to assume that sometime there would be a backlash, that someday the “fairer sex” would come out with guns blazing, chomping at the bit to dispel those centuries of repression. Well, newsflash for all you men out there and congratulations to all the ladies: that day has come.
Women are officially trouncing men in the classroom. That’s correct, the ivory towers once inhabited almost exclusively by men have been penetrated, ransacked, and repossessed by females. According to data, 60 percent of college students are now female. Ladies obtain 170,000 more bachelor degrees annually than their male counterparts. The ratios of women to males at business and medical colleges are steadily rising, and, at law schools, females now claim a majority. Meanwhile, growing numbers of boys from elementary to high school are struggling to meet minimum standards, leaving educators and administrators puzzled, unsure of what happened.
Where did this trend come from? A few theories exist. One suggests that girls, who tend to gravitate toward cooperation, alliance, multi-tasking, and sitting quietly, are better matched socially for the established school system. Boys, on the other hand, who yearn for exploration, contest, and physical action, have a tendency to be square pegs in round holes, so to speak, in academics. Other theories propose that the feminist movement, with its continual stream of “girl power” messaging, and the relative silence from the male side are accountable for this remarkable swing. For almost 40 years now, girls have had multitudes of proponents telling them they carry the torch for those who didn’t have the opportunities they did, that they must go out demonstrate that they can do it- for their mothers, aunts, grandmothers, and great-grandmothers. Males, on the other hand, sitting high on the hog, have had very little to scrap for; support generally involves sports rather than academics.
Two bastions of male supremacy still linger, however: management and earnings. Men still greatly outnumber females in administration jobs. Average male pay in comparable jobs routinely outpace those of their female peers.
It may just be a matter of time before those ladies who now populate colleges spread into the corporations of the world. It may just be a matter of time before women come to dominate industry, politics, and life as we know it. It may be just a matter of time before guys find themselves wearing really uncomfortable corsets and having to watch their figures. (Kiss your 32 oz. steaks and burping contests goodbye!)
All of Mom’s advice about being nice to girls totally makes sense now. Back then, it was about chivalry. In the future, it may be about survival.
About the author: Marcus Varner earned his MBA in Marketing and a BA in English with a Creative Writing emphasis from Brigham Young University. He specializes in writing about education issues, online education, online colleges, workplace trends, and careers.
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