Gender, education study released

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By Sophia Chakos-Leiby
Daily Bruin Contributor

Earning more than half of all undergraduate and Master’s
degrees, it may seem that women no longer trail behind men in
education attainment levels ““ but the majority of doctorates
are still being awarded to men, a recent study found.

According to “Postsecondary Institutions in the United
States: Fall 2000 and Degrees and Other Awards Conferred:
1999-2000,” a survey conducted annually by the National
Center for Education Statistics, women earned 57 percent of
bachelor’s and 58 percent of masters degrees that year, while
men earned 56 percent of doctorates.

“This is a trend that’s been happening for the last
few years: the majority of undergraduate and Master’s degrees
are awarded to women,” said UCLA education and women’s
studies professor Helen Astin. “To many, this is news because
they used to lag so far behind.”

Astin attributed the increases in women obtaining degrees to the
second wave of the women’s movement.

“They can pursue dreams and economics aspirations … they
are preparing for the labor force,” she said.

Jennifer A. Lindholm, associate director of Cooperative
Institutional Research Program, said higher education statistics
don’t illustrate women’s progress in society because
issues of inequity can lie behind the degree.

“Men with lower degrees earn as much money as women with
higher ones,” Lindholm said. “Men can generally do fine
economically without as much higher education.”

According to the Economic Policy Institute, a Washington-based
think tank, men earn on average higher salaries than women. In
1999, men working high-paying jobs made an average of $37.99 per
hour while women in the same fields earned $28.07.

The numbers cause conflict in the education field when people
debate over which gender is losing out or unfairly getting ahead,
Lindholm said.

“This idea is particularly common in times of economic
difficulty because people think there isn’t enough to go
around, and they see that resources are finite,” she
said.

Different interpretations evolve to explain the various
statistical reports the NCES collects, said NCES project director
Susan Broyle.

But the agency does not only research education attainment
levels; their recent survey also shows a divide along gender lines
in the choice of undergraduate majors.

Women dominated the psychology arena, receiving 76 percent of
the Bachelor’s degrees awarded in the field. Men, however,
outnumbered women in political science, where they earned 52
percent of the Bachelor’s degrees.

There is equity in numbers, but not in fields, Astin said.

“Some people worry that when a field gets too feminized
““ called the “˜pinking’ of professions ““ the
average salary will go down or the discipline will lose
status,” she said.

The struggle for equity between men and women remains an ongoing
issue in education.

“People look at data, don’t know why it is happening
and make short-sided assessments … But women have struggled hard.
I don’t want those voices to silence what they’ve
done,” Astin said.