Girls have a built-in neurological advantage over boys when it comes to language skills, according to new research from Northwestern University and the University of Haifa. The researchers found that while girls can easily process language in the abstract, boys depend more on their senses. The upshot is that boys may need to be taught both visually and verbally, while girls can learn equally well through either means and presumably have an easier time with learning because of it.
The findings may shed some light on a question that has been puzzling Gary Becker and Richard Posner: why do boys, on average, perform worse academically than girls do, from primary school right on through college?
The underperformance of boys has contributed to a striking reversal of the gender gap in higher education over the last fifty years. Women now decisively outnumber men on the nation’s college campuses, and they graduate at a higher rate than men do. Becker thinks the reduced pressure on women to marry and have children young, matched with the increased pressure on them to compete in the labor force, partly explains why women have closed the gender gap. But why have they hurtled past men in college enrollment and graduation? What else accounts for the new gender gap, and what should be done to address it?
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Does this relate to males possibly being more inclined to the physical sciences? As a staff member at Harvard, I have to wonder about this and Larry Summers.
Men have better non-academic-based employment options: skilled labor in construction, municipal services, and
College tuitions have escalated into huge debt loads with long-term payoff. Capitalism rewards business success, not degrees.
Why does anything need be “done to address it? Higher learning serves to *) satisfy intellectual curiosity, and *)punch a few linear career tickets (nursing, architecture, accounting). Beyond this, the time and money are not worthwhile.
What should be done? Nothing.
As regulators/government/concerned citizens, our priority should be to ensure a fair educational “marketplace” with low barriers to entry, strong enforcement of rules and regulations, and cheap and fair ways to air grievances. Beyond that, should one group outperform another group, more power to them.
As jz (#2) points out, increased enrollment in and graduation from higher education by women, may be a matter of selection; they have a greater incentive to get a degree, since their opportunities are much fewer without it.
I’m not sure that anything “needs” to be done. I can see a problem only if comparison of admission requests to actual admissions (of similar students) shows that colleges are purposely selecting women over men in significant numbers. To date I’ve heard no credible evidence that’s the case. If in fact men are simply choosing not to go to college, there is literally nothing to be done (because the alternative, i.e. forcing young men to go to college, is ridiculous).
The reason for the increase in female enrolment is multi-faceted.
1) We can’t overlook affirmative action. There are still quotas, slots to be filled, etc. So, in the effort to prove they are not sexist, universities are sexist…against men.
2) Women returning to school. I wish I could find the study, but it has been suggested that women who take time off to raise their family go back to school because they need to update their skills. Women also switch careers more often than men and thus need to return to school.
3) The feminisation of the classroom. Boys thrive in competition. Every boy who has played sports and lost knows how “Good game” rings hollow, even if you did play your best. But schools now have social promotion, no one fails, you cannot mark incorrect answers with an “X” or a red pen. Because of this, boys are losing interest in learning since the success/failure triggers are not there.
4) Larger class sizes mean more theoretical learning and less hands on. So, this means more lecturing (and listening) and less doing. This arrangement favours girls.
5) The “You can have it all” myth for women. There is no doubt pressure on young women to be able to do everything their male counterparts do, including getting a post-secondary education, which not too long ago was a male-dominated bastion. So, women end up in college because they feel a social pressure to be there rather than because it fits with their path in life.
My first thought was also that there are more well-paying, non-degree-requiring vocations available to men than women.
My other thought is sociological. I don’t have data to support, but it seems that boys have a number of non-academic ways that they can be successful through high school. Consider that a starter (not even a “star”) on the basketball team may be academically unsuccessful but still highly regarded by his peers, the faculty, and community. Do girls have as many non-academic ways of being notable/successful?
Don’t show this study to Nancy Hopkins, she might either black out or throw up.
So men used to outnumber women, now it’s reversed. So the original problem was “fixed” and created a new problem – perhaps segregation needs ot be reintroduced so the “gender learning styles” can be separated. Maybe the issue is affirmative action. Maybe we need to stop worrying about a level playing field.
All people learn differently. Some guys could learn better in et’s (above) example. Some girls could learn better in the opposite. It sounds like schools need to realize their is no “one size fits all” approach to education and that people need to find what approach works best for them, instead of shoving them into the same genderless mold.
In my opinon, of course…