Nobody Cares When The So-Called "Gender Gap" Is Male
Kelly Field writes at Chronicle for Higher Ed:
George Wilson knew remote learning was not for him. So when his classes went online because of the coronavirus pandemic, Wilson, a then-45-year-old furnace operator in Ohio, did what thousands of men nationwide did last year -- he stopped out.On campus, "I'm a machine," said Wilson, who is pursuing an associate degree at Lakeland Community College, in Kirtland, Ohio. "I don't have that same drive at home."
Wilson is part of an exodus of men away from college that has been taking place for decades, but that accelerated during the pandemic. And it has enormous implications, for colleges and for society at large.
Last fall, male undergraduate enrollment fell by nearly 7 percent, nearly three times as much as female enrollment, according to the National Student Clearinghouse. The decline was the steepest -- and the gender gap the largest -- among students of color attending community colleges. Black and Hispanic male enrollment at public two-year colleges plummeted by 19.2 and 16.6 percent, respectively, about 10 percentage points more than the drops in Black and Hispanic female enrollment. Drops in enrollment of Asian men were smaller, but still about eight times as great as declines in Asian women.
Men as a whole aren't usually the group that comes to mind as needing a leg up. But for colleges, declining male enrollment means less revenue and less viewpoint diversity in the classroom. For the economy, it means fewer workers to fill an increasing number of jobs that require at least some college education, and a future in which the work force is split even more along gender lines.
...Until relatively recently, men who skipped college could count on a family-sustaining wage in a male-dominated, blue-collar field like manufacturing. But those types of jobs have become scarcer, while the earnings gap between men with high-school diplomas and college degrees has grown wider. Today, men with bachelor's degrees make roughly $900,000 more in median lifetime earnings than high-school graduates who lack higher degrees, according to the Social Security Administration.
Though well-paying jobs are still available for men without a four-year degree -- jobs in the skilled trades, and advanced manufacturing, for example -- most require at least a certificate or associate degree.
"I don't know if there has been a full coming to grips with the way the economy has changed," said DiPrete. "We're still close enough to this world that, in some senses, has gone past, a world where a man could support his family without a college degree, working in a factory."
But labor-market factors alone can't fully explain the growing gulf in college completion between men and women. Academic preparation and gender norms play a role, too.
The differences between boys and girls emerge as early as elementary school, where boys lag in literacy skills and are overrepresented in special education. Boys are also more likely than girls to be punished for misbehaving -- an experience that can sour them on school.
The article gets away with expressing concern about men because they go all into men of color. (You can't care about white men these days, as it's um...insert Kendi crap here.) Personally, I'm tired of that (skin color) being the special decoder ring we need to use to care about HUMAN BEINGS! I care about people. Can we please go back to that?
Whether a college education will continue to matter in the way it has is another question. Personally, once, when I was hiring a new PT editor, my then editor (awesome Adam), who was leaving but training her, asked, "Where did she go to college." Me: "Um, I don't know." Only then did I look at her resume. Oh, Emerson. Whatever.
What matters to me is whether you can think, write, and stand up to me when I write muddled or unfunny crap and tell me it's muddled and/or unfunny. (It takes a while for each editor to really believe I want them to tell me when I'm being arrogant, idiotic, unclear, etc., but finally it sinks in.)
Male college enrollment is down, but trade school enrollment is increasing.
I would think twice about reccomending university to any young man today if he has alternative of learning a trade.
The financial burden is less, job opportunities are better, and he is not condemning himself to spending 4 years in a dangerous "woke' man hating environment where any POC, administrator or non male identifying person can destroy his life..
bill morton at July 8, 2021 9:52 PM
The exodus of men from college is coinciding with an increase of people saying college isn't important, it's a waste of money, people should study the trades.
If it continues I predict college will be considered a sort of finishing school.
Oh my god I just read the comment above mine.
NicoleK at July 9, 2021 4:14 AM
Here's interesting graphic on the evolution of the college degree, and of college attendance in general.
Conan the Grammarian at July 9, 2021 5:52 AM
Doesn't mention the creation of the women's colleges but otherwise a cool graphic
NicoleK at July 9, 2021 6:02 AM
Doesn't mention the creation of the women's colleges
See the 1861 entry.
I R A Darth Aggie at July 9, 2021 7:05 AM
"We're still close enough to this world that, in some senses, has gone past, a world where a man could support his family without a college degree, working in a factory." ~DiPrete
Why limit things to only factories?
To a significant extent factories have either automated workers away as much as possible or mainly hire illegal workers. It is the only way to compete with foreign workers in foreign factories. And even then it is only partially effective. You can hire a high school educated factory worker in China for a little over $1000/mo. And that is in a major metropolitan area. In the US the poverty line for a family of four is defined as $26,500/year. That Chinese factory worker is making about $13,000/year. About half of the US poverty line. That is your competition.
"If it continues I predict college will be considered a sort of finishing school." ~NicoleK
As you noted Bill beat you to that. ;D And to a large extent you both are right. When the university started people studied math, physics, logic, and religion. All without the expectation of a return on investment. These were noble pursuits and what separated them from the common man (yada yada yada). Essentially a finishing school for men. It was only much later when those fields became applied that the concept of university as training for a job came around. As universities turn away from useful applied knowledge they are in a sense returning to their roots and reverting back into that finishing school model. Just one for women instead of men.
"Today, men with bachelor's degrees make roughly $900,000 more in median lifetime earnings than high-school graduates who lack higher degrees, according to the Social Security Administration." ~Kelly Field
To complete the quote:
"Women with bachelor's degrees earn $630,000 more." ~ssa.gov
But the thing is not everyone is the same. Trump's kids can get a degree in musical farting and still do well. The rest of us not so much. Which the social security administration recognized and accounted for in the article Fields was quoting from. Also inflation is a thing. Money isn't worth the same today as it is tomorrow much less 35 years from now (time period lifetime earnings are calculated over).
"the net present lifetime value at age 20 of a bachelor's degree relative to a high school diploma is $260,000 for men and $180,000 for women." ~ssa.gov
Not exactly the near $1M Fields makes it look like. For 'a degree' to pay for itself the 'average man' needs to spend less than $65k/year and the 'average woman' needs to spend less than $45k/year. The average cost of a college degree is about $30k/year. Hence on average degrees do pay for themselves. It just takes a while. 17 years for men and 24 years for women. Or 47% of your career for men and 68% of your career for women.
Kinda puts the advertising in a different light when you need to work for 20 odd years to turn a profit.
Ben at July 9, 2021 8:31 AM
While feminists are happy to see men fail, most women still want a successful husband. Failure of women to see the needs of men as important ends up shooting themselves in the foot.
cc at July 9, 2021 8:40 AM
From the graph:
"1701
Yale College is established and later moves to New Haven, Connecticut, as the Puritan ministers of the area had grown dissatisfied with what they viewed as liberal theology of Harvard"
Some things never change.
Spiderfall at July 9, 2021 9:28 AM
I am an old dude who started out an engineering major (when slide rules were still in vogue) who switched to premed at the West Coasts most radical public university. I had mobs of women chase after me, when they saw the slide rule, and if they caught up with me, hock big luggis at me, calling me a war mongering male facist establishment pig, before going off to attend the day's violent confrontation with the pigs in blue and national guard uniforms.
Things have changed.
I was able to retire early, and I occassionaly visit near by colleges to burrow into their stacks and read about subjects that interest me (not engineering or medicine, I am done with that s--t). Now the shrinking violets (male female and indeterminate) have fainting fits and report the threatening old man in the carrel way back in the stacks among the civil war era newspapers, whose mere presence makes them feel insecure, to the librarian or campus cops.
Quite frankly I preferred the hary legged, braless Amazons of the old days to todays sneaks and snoflakes and wonder about the education they are getting if everything triggers them.
And if an old guy reading a 100 year old book offends them, then I would not want to be a younger male student on campus trying to get an eddication.
Mark Smorley at July 9, 2021 1:32 PM
I notice a lot of what Advice Goddess closes with
I'm a subject matter expert type, not management material. From 199x - 2010 or so, I was told that if I didn't speak up at meetings, then they wouldn't bring me anymore. Identifying problems adds value!
My boss and boss's bosses would implore us to point out errors or subtler concerns in their draft presentations and proposals. They said, "Don't let me go in to a meeting with executives or regulators and embarrass myself because I overlooked something that was obvious to my own team! Tell me now." I learned this while working for IBM, Standard & Poor's, DTCC, even the NYC branch of a Japanese industrial bank.
It's been difficult for me, learning to change my old ways. To management, not being challenged is most important, even if they are wrong... and even if it isn't in the company's or public's best interest.
I have guesses about the root-cause. At most they would be correlative not causal. I know better, especially with slide rule guy Mark S nearby. But men of his ilk are growing scarce. Same for Advice Goddess. And me. What happens when critical thinkers are gone or completely stifled? idk... Après nous, le déluge?
Ellie Kesselman at July 9, 2021 3:32 PM
If you take the cost of college, and don't spend it but presume it's compounding at whatever percent, how does that affect the total income diff by age 65?
Some guys don't go to college because they can't handle the cognitive issues or don't have the self-discipline (low as it may be in that area) to succeed. Those who could go, but don't, have the cognitive wherewithal and self discipline. That's a separate cohort within the totality of non-college guys.
WRT viewpoint diversity in the classroom, maybe the remaining men have learned to keep their fool mouths shut.
Richard AUBREY at July 10, 2021 3:09 PM
Richard, I ran those numbers for you using the assumptions from the social security administration.
"Hence on average degrees do pay for themselves. It just takes a while. 17 years for men and 24 years for women. Or 47% of your career for men and 68% of your career for women."
That was calculated using present dollars and accounting for the opportunity cost of not going to college.
Key to note, that is 'on average'. I.e. an engineering degree is the same as an education degree in that calculation. It doesn't take much effort to realize that isn't the case. Which is why you see such a difference between men and women in those numbers. Applied degrees offer a return on investment much faster than most other degrees and are more male dominated. While I don't have the numbers in front of me I expect there are a few degrees that offer a very good ROI of 2-5 years and a whole lot of degrees that don't return the investment ever.
Ben at July 11, 2021 7:04 AM
To put things more comparably. At an average 20 year payoff the average college degree offers a 3.5% annual return.
By comparison getting a 5%-7% inflation adjusted return by conservatively investing in the stock market is not too difficult. Since 1926, the average annual return for stocks has been 10.1% (not adjusted for inflation).
So yes, the majority of college graduates would be better served not going to college and investing their money. Not to mention those who don't even graduate.
Ben at July 11, 2021 7:16 AM
Apologies, my numbers have an error.
The SSA used 50 years for lifetime earnings. Not the 35 I had seen used elsewhere.
It is 23 years for a man's degree to payoff, not 17.
It is 33 year for a woman's degree to payoff, not 24.
An average of 28 years not 20 to return the investment. A 2.5% annual return, not 3.5%.
Ben at July 11, 2021 7:35 AM
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