Men Were Already Behind Women In Higher Education. The Pandemic Made Things Worse.

Women have dominated college campuses in recent decades, but the coronavirus pandemic made the divide even worse, as many men realized remote learning was not for them.

The Chronicle of Higher Education reported that 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,” the outlet added.

With Democrats and their media supporters focusing so much on every disparity between men and women that they say hurts women, college men have been forgotten and ignored, the consequences of which can be far reaching.

“[F]or 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,” the outlet reported.

The work force being evenly split might not be a problem, but it could eventually become uneven again, with more women working than men. While the Chronicle mentions the economic consequences of today’s misalignment on college campuses, it doesn’t discuss the social ramifications this could cause. Women typically seek out men who are successful or show promise as financial providers. Fewer men in college and with college degrees would limit the marriage pool for women seeking a partner. Various societal issues already arise in places where women outnumber men, as men become less inclined to “settle down” when they have so many options. Conversely, when men outnumber women, they tend to work toward impressing the few available women.

As the Chronicle reported, the trend of more women receiving degrees began in the late 1970s, the last time men and women attended college about equally.

“Today, women account for 57 percent of enrollment and an even greater share of degrees, especially at the level of master’s and above. The explanations for this growing gender imbalance vary from the academic to the social to the economic. Girls, on average, do better in primary and secondary school. Boys are less likely to seek help when they struggle. And they face more pressure to join the work force,” the outlet reported.

Of course, none of the issues facing boys in education – whether primary, secondary, or higher – are being addressed at large, as the focus is continuously on girls and any perceived imbalance that hurts them. This near-total focus for decades has resulted in reduced educational outcomes for boys and a society that regularly demonizes them.

For colleges that are trying to attract more men back into education, the Chronicle reported, they are “are adding sports teams and majors in fields that tend to attract more men than women, such as criminal justice and information science.” The programs, however, are rare and given limited resources, unlike programs directed at women, which are not only provided generous grants and attention, but allowed to exist even if they violate Title IX, the federal statute that prohibits discrimination based on sex.

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