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Report
shows women enrollment in higher education
increasing
By
Katie Plourd
Online Forty-Niner
Staff Writer
A
new study by the National Center for Education
Statistics (NCES) has a reason for why there
are not only so many women here at Cal State
Long Beach, but how more women are attending
colleges throughout the nation.
The
report, "Trends of Educational Equity
of Girls and Women," written by Catherine
Freeman, is an update to a similar report
released in 2000. The study explores why
women have been making educational gains
in recent years.
Statistics
show what degree men and women have the
same access to education, benefit equally
from education, perform at parallel levels
in school, have similar success rates and
benefit from their learning experiences
overall. The study says that gender gaps
are continuing to close in college level
education also, according to Freeman.
Girls
begin with higher aspirations than males
do when it comes to post-secondary education,
Freeman reports. In 2001, studies showed
that 61 percent of female high school seniors
reported having definite aspirations to
graduate college, while only 51 percent
of male seniors had the same aspirations.
The
statistics also show that since 1972, enrollment
in higher education has rapidly increased
for females. Back then, women enrolled in
college made up a minority figure of overall
college enrollment; in recent years the
number has reached a majority mark, with
females accounting for 58 percent of part-time
enrollment and 55 percent of full-time enrollment.
CSULB
student Nicole Yoder thinks that the way
women are portrayed has had a major impact
on the increasing numbers in higher education.
Twenty years ago women were only thought
of to have roles in the household, Yoder
said.
Not
only are women going to college but they
are sticking with their educational aspirations
and graduating at higher rates than males.
According to Freeman, while enrollment shows
that the gaps of access to education is
narrowing, statistics show that more women
are finishing their college education than
males.
Yoder
says that it is important for her to finish
school because it is something the other
women in her family didn't get a chance
to do. "It's important for me to be
the first woman in my family to get through
school so I can tell my kids that I did
that," Yoder said.
Sixty-six
percent of women who aspired to earn a bachelor's
degree in 1995-96 fulfilled that accomplishment
in 2001 and received their degrees. In that
year over half of the overall bachelor's
degrees earned were given to females, according
to Freeman.
"A
sense of security, self and accomplishment
are attached to these degrees that women
are earning," Yoder said. "It
is important for women to have those things
in the world today."
Although
there is substantial evidence that shows
that the gender gap is tightening in the
realms of educational opportunities, males
continue to persist in certain ways, such
as at the graduate level, as first professional
students and in specific fields of study.
The
study shows that the majority of first professional
students are still men. According to the
U.S. Department of Education, first professional
students are those in fields such as dentistry,
medicine, law, optometry, pharmacy, chiropractic
medicine, pediatric medicine, veterinary
medicine and theological professions. According
to the 2002 Digest of Educational Statistics,
based on the Higher Education General Information
Survey, males continue to dominate in these
fields of study.
Though
women account for most bachelor's degrees
attained through post-secondary education,
they tend to be for lower-paying occupations,
Freeman reports.
"The
percentage of master's, doctor's and first-professional
degrees earned by females increased substantially
in many fields," Freeman says. "However,
advanced degrees conferred still tend to
follow traditional patterns, with women
accounting for the majority of master's
and doctor's degree recipients in education
and health, and men accounting for the majority
of recipients in computer and information
sciences and engineering."
Fields
such as engineering, computers and the sciences
have not seen the same increase in enrollment,
according to the National Science Foundation
(NSF). The NSF reports that since 1999 women
are progressing through these fields slowly.
Mechanical
Engineering student LanrË Popoola observes
that many of his engineering classes are
filled with more males than females.
"[One]
class only has five or six girls, in a class
of about 30," Popoola said. "A
lot of those girls aren't even engineering
majors, either."
Popoola believes that the way society portrays
women's roles may have to do with the lack
of interest in such fields.
"The
field involves a lot of working with machines
and stuff," Popoola said. "In
society women aren't seen to have much to
do with that stuff. That's probably why
they don't pursue that area."
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