Boys and Girls

[Martha]

During the 2003-2004 academic year, Minnesota post-secondary institutions awarded 74,277 diplomas, certificates and degrees. Women earned the majority in every category for the first time, winning:

--65% of master's degrees

--59% of associate's degrees

--58% of bachelor's degrees

--53% of doctoral degrees

I also read that other states are seeing similar results, but I didn't check for specifics.

Comments? I am reporting this statistic because of the recent "house husband" discussion.

 

[Marshac]

Did the number of males receiving diplomas decrease, or did it remain the same while females increased their numbers?

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

And how many of those had a sex change?

 

[DrJDoe]

Women earned the majority in every category for the first time, winning:

I think that there has been a trend for educational institutions to try to "level the playing field" over the last decade or so.  Enrollment at my med school has had a slight female edge since before I went there - although that may also have had something to do with the fact that Medical College of Pennsylvania (which combined with Hahnemann in 1995 and is now Drexel) used to be Women's Medical College of Pennsylvania.  There were actually scholarships available for women not open to men (likely endowments left from women physicians back when it was a rarity).  I had the opportunity to participate in a "Summer Science Symposium" at Penn State the summer I graduated from HS whose stated purpose was to encourage WOMEN and MINORITIES to go into the "hard" sciences.  

I also wonder though if some of the increase is because of women going BACK to school after they were full time moms/housewives back in the day when "house husbands" were even less socially acceptable and that we will see the numbers even out again once everyone (men and women) feels they have a choice.  I would like to see the age distribution on those degrees.

One of the guys I went to school with had a rant about the only people NOT getting perks anymore was the AVERAGE WHITE MALE.  I would also say that medical schools at the time were also not enrolling more than a (specified?) percentage of Asian students as historically they were making up a larger percentage of graduates than population would suggest.  There was a cruel tongue in cheek joke that if you were female AND a minority you were in because you could fill TWO "diversity slots."  (The reason I say cruel is because the joke implies that said minority female could not have gotten in on her own merit.)  Is all of this FAIR? No.  Does this mean you turn down the scholarship because you don't agree with being profiled as a female?  Not in my case.  

In an ideal world no one would suffer from the effects of racism, sexism, ageism, etc  People come up with ideas (good and bad) to "equal up" historical wrongs - then we ineveitably see rebound effects.  This happens in other arenas besides education - Affirmative Action, business allotments for Women owned businesses, special rates on minority business loans.  Hopefully, we are moving on to a society where NO "special treatment" is required.  We've probably made some great strides, we probably have a LOT futher to go.

I'm probably off on a tangent from the original intent of you post ...

DrLLLong

... who doesn't feel that she has ever been particularly "discriminated" against being a female doctor -- even though I was repeatedly warned of this before I ever graduated.  Last month however I was called a "young whippersnapper" and told that "you think you're so smart"...so perhaps I am in a little bit of denial.

 

[Martha]

Marshac's questions is interesting and difficult to find the answer. In Minnesota, the percentage of degrees earned by women continues to increase. The number of bachelor's degrees earned by women in Minnesota increased by 7 percent between 1990 and 2000, compared to an 8 percent decrease for men over the same time.

However, between 1995 and 2004 women's bachelor's degree's in Minnesota increased 26 percent and men's increased 15%.

see http://www.mheso.state.mn.us/mPg.cfm?pageID=752

I am not sure what conclusions can be drawn if any at this time other than women are graduating from college a lot more than they used to.

DrLLong's comment about no sex discrimination was interesting. I know that people tend to worry more about experience and age. My dentist just retired and DH and I went to the brand new baby dentist the office hired. After all, we shouldn't have to ever change dentists again. He seems so young! We were a bit squeemish, but he seems to be doing fine.

When I was president of our firm, I would frequently hear worries from clients about the experience of new attorneys but rarely a concern about their gender. Of course, being female I might never hear a thing. However, sometimes I have had women call me and ask specifically for a woman lawyer, especially in divorce/family situations.

When I was first out of law school more than 20 years ago I went and worked for an older judge, now long deceased. At my interview he asked me if my name was my maiden name. I said it was the "name I always had". He laughed and said he really wanted to know if I was married because married women don't have enough time for work. At the time I wasn't married as DH and I were still living together. I bit my lip and said no and he hired me.

We got along well even though he called me "dear", even later when I would appear in his court as a lawyer, not his clerk.

 

[laurence]

I've seen these numbers, too. I don't have any scientific data, but I can tell you that when I was in high school (in the 90's so still sort of relevent) guys were cool if the were on a team and had a letterman's jacket, or if they were in a gang/clique and tatooed themselves, peddled drugs, etc. No way was it acceptable to be about the book larnin', but it seemed much more acceptable for the ladies.

End result is my company has ten vice presidents and a president comprised of 11 white males. To those who say there's no racism/sexism in the boardroom anymore, I say, "scoreboard!"

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Mmm hmmm...we used to call it "white guys in ties"...