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Gender Differences in Higher Education
Caralyn Patton
In society today women are still facing more discrimination than is
distinctly obvious. As John Curtis (2011) quotes Valian, “discrimination
against women is generally less blatant and open than it was several
decades ago” (p. 7). However, the prejudice against women has simply
taken other forms and has not disappeared. For example, rather than
facing the harsher stereotype of the housewife of the 1950s, women face
the glass ceiling, a common phenomenon called as such for how hard a
concept it is to observe normally. It is a difficulty women in many differ-
ent careers must combat when trying to gain promotions within and even
simply gain entrance into a multitude of fields. Academia is one such
field, specifically becoming full-time and tenured professors. This field is
of exceptional interest because there are currently as many or more wom-
en than men pursuing educational degrees at every level (West & Curtis,
2006, p. 4). There are obvious disparities in overall data between tenured,
tenure-track, and non-tenured professors based on gender, as well as men
and women present in part-time and full-time positions, and females
remain underrepresented in the more prestigious of these options. Since
women are underrepresented in the more prestigious categories, like
full-time or tenured positions, men are overrepresented and are therefore
paid more. Reasons for these disparities in representation are vast and
are slowly being explored, from the idea of a “mommy track” in higher
education faculty to personality-based differences and more advanced
concepts like the gender schema theory (Curtis, 2011; Dinella, Fulcher, &
Weisgram, 2014, p. 494). As these rationales are explored, more solutions
are also being scrutinized in order to bring more women into academia.
Although females are currently matching or surpassing male students
in terms of enrollment in and degrees earned from educational institu-
tions of every level, women are still not being equally represented among
faculty in higher education.
Statistics
Enrollment and Degrees Earned
In order to understand the gravity of the disparities between female
students and women employed by higher education in the United States,
the statistics of enrollment and degrees earned must be analyzed in regards
to both gender and time. This commences with the enrollment of males
and females in undergraduate programs; in 1980, females surpassed males
in enrollment at undergraduate institutions. Every year since then, this
difference has not only remained apparent, but for the most part, it has
increased. It peaked in 2011, with 10,254.31 females enrolled for every
7,822.99 males (“Undergraduate enrollment,” 2013). Unsurprisingly, the
number of bachelor’s degrees actually earned by females overcame the
number of bachelor’s degrees earned by males at a similar time, in the
academic year 1981-82, with females earning 479.63 degrees for every
473.36 earned by males (“Number of bachelor's degrees,” 2013). This dif-
ference has also increased over the last thirty years, rising to 765.77 degrees
earned by males for every 1,052.93 degrees earned by females (“Number
of bachelor's degrees,” 2013). Not only have females exceeded the number
of undergraduate degrees earned by males, but they have also exceeded
males in terms of enrollment in post-baccalaureate programs and degrees
earned from master’s programs while earning a comparable amount of
doctoral degrees as well (“Number of post-baccalaureate,” 2012; “Number
of master's degrees,” 2013; “Number of doctoral degrees,” 2013). In 1988,
more women than men were enrolled in post-baccalaureate programs, or
pre-professional types of graduate programs (“Number of post-baccalaure-
ate,” 2012). In terms of master’s degrees earned, women passed men in the
academic year 1986-87. There has been a steady increase in this variance
Caralyn Patton
Caralyn Patton is a current
sophomore Psychology major
from Madison, Alabama.
She is a member of Pi Beta Phi
Women’s Fraternity, the Alpha
Lambda Delta honor society, and
the Harrison Honors program.
She is also a Hess Fellow, a
‘Southern Ambassador, and an
Orientation Leader.
This paper, titled “Gender Dif-
ferences in Higher Education,”
was written for her honors class
“Civil Rights and Justice.”