Women outnumber, outperform men in higher education

Studies show gender gap widening nationwide

To overachiever Michelle Rissky, the difference between a passing grade and a failing one is the difference between an A and a B.

“I think I was geared at a young age that I could accomplish a lot and I had the capabilities and I should try,” the Kansas University senior said.

Rissky, a premedicine student who has earned near-perfect grades in her college years, isn’t alone in her high-achieving ways. Statistics show women both outnumber and outperform men at KU and other higher education institutions across the nation.

A recent report by the American Council on Education found that the gender gap is widening in higher education.

“I see the phenomenon all the time,” KU psychology professor David Holmes said of his students. “The top 10, 15 percent of the class is largely women all the time.”

A bit too lackadaisical?

At KU, where women outnumber men, female students earn higher grades and have better graduation rates. KU women earned an average GPA of 3.08 last spring, besting men whose combined GPA was 2.86.

And the picture is similar among women in KU’s greek community. Sorority women in fall 2005 reported a higher average GPA of 3.11 compared with the 2.94 average among fraternity men.

Kelly Peters, an Overland Park junior at Kansas University, places sections of maps on the floor of her Western civilization class to form a representation of the world during the first day of classes. Women outperform men in college classes and tend to graduate earlier, according to a recent report by the American Council on Education.

“I think guys are just lazy,” KU freshman Brian Ortega said. “In high school, they can get by with it. And then they get to college, and it’s too different for them. I’m smart and I’m lazy, so we’ll see what happens.”

Chris Carr, a KU sophomore, said grades are important to him, and he’ll try to get an A if he can. He hazarded a guess that the gender gap might be because of differences in levels of determination or in attention spans.

“I think guys, me for one, like to go out and have too much fun,” he said.

The statistics point to a changed landscape. In 1975, men outnumbered women at KU, making up about 57 percent of the student population. But the transformation at KU came in 1988 – the first year when women outnumbered men by the slim margin of 50.2 percent. Women have continued to outnumber men ever since, according to KU’s fall head count.

And the gap is evident even before students hit college. According to KU’s Office of Admissions and Scholarships, KU received more applications from women than men for the summer and fall of 2005. There was a similar picture across all ethnic groups, except in the case of Asian American applicants.

Pushed to be perfect

Katherine Rose-Mockry, director of KU’s Emily Taylor Women’s Resource Center, said some research had found that women press to succeed out of necessity.

“They don’t have a sense that their futures are secure,” she said.

It’s a factor some students also point to.

“A lot of guys just kind of have a streamlined life,” said Surya Lakhanpal, a KU freshman from Olathe. “They go through. They get grades. They get a job. Women have to work harder in this world to make it – more than men do.”

But some studies also have pointed to the perfectionist factor.

“At an early age, women have internalized messages that in order to be OK, you have to be better, you have to be essentially perfect at what you do,” Rose-Mockry said.

Rissky, who will be recognized as one of KU’s Women of Distinction this fall, said she’s been something of a perfectionist since she was young.

“My preschool teacher will still talk to this day about how I was a slow and meticulous student,” she said. “I always took the longest at the scissors exercises.”

Those who watch the trends also point to disparities among races and socioeconomic groups.

In the 2004-05 school year, KU awarded more than 3,600 bachelor’s degrees to students at the Lawrence and Edwards campuses. The vast majority of those students – 3,090 – were white, while 86 were black, 43 were American Indian, 137 were Asian and 102 were Hispanic.

KU officials say minority enrollment is increasing and there are efforts under way to improve retention of those students.

Minority enrollment for the fall 2005 semester stood at 11.8 percent of total enrollment. That was up from 9.7 percent in 2001.