In the U.S. more women than men graduate from college, by a lot. What does it mean?

For much of human history, women faced societal and cultural obstacles to formal education. In some parts of the world, that’s still the case, but in the U.S., the barriers for women to enter and excel in higher education have all but disappeared. In fact, for decades, women have outpaced men in college enrollment and graduation rates.

That’s good news for gender equality, but now American colleges and universities are facing a different dilemma, as the data shows that gender gap is widening. According to government data for the year 2021-2022 shared in Forbes, women accounted for for 62.8% of associate degrees, 58.5% of bachelor’s degrees, 62.6% of master’s degrees and 57% of doctoral degrees—a solid majority across all post-secondary degrees at every level.

What does this mean? What's causing the growing disparity and what effect does it—or will it—have on society?

People shared their thoughts on these questions on Reddit and it's quite eye-opening. Here are various explanations for the gap:

Women tend to be more attentive and engaged students

Some teachers and professors shared their personal experiences with female students compared to male students, saying that women just tend to be "better" students in general.

"I work at a trade school for a very male dominated field and yet my female students are consistently my highest performers. They are typically the tops of their class, bring in more scholarships, and are the first to achieve certification by farrrrrr! They just typically seem more self motivated."

"I'm a professor at a community college and I teach a trade. From my experience the women just have it together better than the men do. They know how to study, they come prepared, they're organized, they pay attention, they are more mature, they know how to manage time and prioritize what's important."

Men and women are not equally incentivized to pursue higher education

Men have more options for well-paid work that doesn't require a college degree, including trades jobs that require greater upper body strength where men have an advantage. If women want to have financial independence, a college degree is their most promising path.

"A lot of younger dudes are told they can make more money not going to college. They are constantly hit with messaging about how the richest people in the world didn't go and so they don't have to. That they can be entrepreneurs or do get rich schemes with crypto, etc. They just see the amount of money they could make (which is complete speculation) vs the amount of money they will spend. Lastly, a lot of people have been told that college is a scam to get them into debt for the rest of their lives. Not to mention the whole military industrial complex that wants these men to go to the military instead of college so they do invade a lot of men's spaces like video games.

Meanwhile women have been pushing other women to go to college for a many reasons like it still being one of the best ways to boost your overall income. College was one of the many things kept away from women and so modern women will take advantage of their rights."

Women have more incentive to go to college.Photo credit: Canva

"For a woman to not be financially dependant on a man, she needs an education. Financial independence. For decades, women were locked in terrible marriages because they couldn't get jobs that they could live on. Low paying secretarial and teaching jobs (much like today) were the only things available so they had to stay in destructive marriages to survive. Men knew this, probably why up until the 1960's, women were not allowed to make contracts, wills, buy or sell property or get a credit card without her husband or father co-signing. Only 1.2% of women went to college. The social changes in the 1960's led to women outpacing men in college starting in the 1970's. Honestly, women saw the value of a college degree more than men did. Still do, probably. It is the only way they can live their lives without being dependant on men."

"Women’s salaries are enhanced by college to a much higher degree than men’s are. That’s partly because there’s seemingly a wider range of non-college jobs for men to go to and still earn a good salary. So some of what’s happening is an economic substitution effect where men are opting to do something equivalent."

The trades aren't as viable an option for women—and not just because of physical differences

The trades, unfortunately, are not always the safest avenue for women to take. Not to stereotype tradesmen, but anecdotal evidence about women's experiences highlight a genuine concern.

"I think women tend to go where other women are. Women can do plenty of a trades work that won't require a degree but can they do it and count on being safe at work? Construction workers have a reputation for harassing women, for example. It's just more of a necessity for women to get a degree and avoid manual labor alongside men. The kind of things you get away with in terms of how you interact with coworkers is much more controlled in an office environment.

A big reason I went to college was how people at my uncle's contracting company treated each other and me when I helped out in the summer. I just didn't like dealing with the constant grab assing and I know it would be even worse for a woman."

"My family besides my dad and one sister are all in trades work. Outside of a cousin who took over my uncle's auto shop all the women felt shit on in trades, everything from attempted assaults by coworkers and clients, to just dealing with misogynistic bullshit. They stick with it, but its a lot. I can see why, especially if you come from a working class family that was exposed to that, you'd be extra incentives to go to and stay in college.

"Yep. I graduated trade school for painting/plastering/flooring/tile. Was the top of the class. Got onto a crew at 19 and it was hell.... I couldn't even climb a ladder without sick/gross comments. I left and never went back. I ended up doing housekeeping for a decade and broke into property management."

Programs that encourage women to pursue degrees where they've traditionally been underrepresented

Certain fields, like STEM, were traditionally male-dominated, so programs to encourage and enable women to go into those fields have been created with success. There aren't really similar programs for men, despite the education gender gap.

"Professor here in a STEM field that was predominantly male students for decades, many of the more successful programs are now predominantly female students. Our program became predominantly female in 2012. We collect information about our students attending the program and placement thereafter. The reasons for that change were elementary and secondary education programs promoting STEM for female students and lower pay than other tech and engineering fields, as well as, trades. I don't see this changing any time soon."

Programs for women in STEM have exploded in the past few decades.Photo credit: Canva

"There is no consensus on what causes this disparity or how to fix it. Potential root causes:

• Grading: Teachers have been found to grade girls more generously than boys (Study 1, Study 2)
• Teachers/Role Models: Teachers, especially for young boys, are overwhelmingly women (87% of elementary teachers are women)
• Government Support: The Women's Bureau works to create parity for women in the workplace. Leading up to Title IX, this agency researched and developed policies to increase the number of women college graduates. There is no Men’s Bureau developing policies to increase the number of men graduating college.
• Programs: There seemingly are many more programs promoting young women’s academic achievement than there are programs promoting young men’s academic achievement."

Boys and young men are being pushed ahead in school before they're ready

Some people pointed out that boys mature slower than girls, which may account for some of the disparity.

"Let me recommend Of Boys and Men by Richard Reeves. His key point is the (a) boys mature later than girls and so (b) 'redshirting' boys makes a lot of sense. So for example, if a 5 year old boy seems maybe not quite ready for kindergarten, then keep them home another year, let them begin at age 6.

Now fast forward to the last years of high school and into college, the issue becomes 'Peter Pan Syndrome,' boys/young men who don't want to grow up. I've seen that in my experience teaching college, it's not unusual for a '101' course to have one student who doesn't submit all the homework, skips classes, and so on, and in 20 years of teaching, it has always been men, not women. They flake out because of lack of maturity, and 13 years ago, maybe their parents should have just kept them home for one more year. Also, I've had men who did a military (including National Guard) term first, and they have told me that it helped them grow up."

"I was that guy in college. I muddled through for 3 years before dropping out. I just didn't have the discipline to do the work, my days were all spent drinking, smoking, and sleeping. I wish I had postponed college for a couple years and worked a real job first, I think I would have been more appreciative of the opportunity."

Boys and young men are being 'left behind'

Culturally, some are pointing out, there's a difference in how males and females are perceived as a group when they fall behind.

"There’s a lot of theories why guys tend to do more poorly than girls in school, and while some explain this as biological, most theories I’ve heard are cultural. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard moms or even some teachers saying how boys are being 'left behind' in academic settings. My own mom is a retired teacher and she would make comments about this stuff too (and she has a chip on her shoulder with males)."

Boys tend to struggle with school more often, starting early on. Photo credit: Canva

""When girls on average fall behind in a subject, there is a push to figure out why and correct it. For example STEM subjects have been made increasingly accessible to women. But when boys fall behind in a subject, there isn’t the same push at all, it’s just blamed on them. Boys are being failed, and at the same time being blamed for it. It’s a crazy way to approach educating children."

"Men get told to pick themselves up by the bootstraps and figure stuff out themselves without any help. Meanwhile when women fall behind there's societal pushes to help them out. It's this lack of a more generalized outlook on who needs help that's part of the problem here."

There are surely many reasons for the gender gap in education, but whatever they are, the disparity has implications for the employment market and research in various fields. While exact gender parity in all things is unrealistic, large disparity isn't ideal and deserves some thoughtful consideration no matter who is being outpaced.