Author: Janet

We examined the mean parental incomes of both male and female students within each college tier and compared them to trends that we hypothesized. Before making the graph, we hypothesized that students at higher-tiered colleges would have a greater mean parental income than students at lower-tiered schools for both genders. In addition, we expected to see females with a greater mean parental income than males because there were generally more females enrolled in colleges than males in recent decades.

In the graph, the blue bars represents the average female parental income and the orange bars represent the average male parental income for each college tier. The data was right skewed and from this, we were able to observe one major trend that followed our original predictions. The students at ivy plus schools had the highest mean parental incomes for both genders, with the average female mean parental income at $412,212 and the average male parental income at $450,376. The mean parental incomes declined as you moved down the college tiers. Students at two-year (public and private not-for-profit), four-year for-profit, and two-year for-profit had the lowest mean parental incomes for both genders, with females having a mean parental income of $58,156 and males $70,848 at two-year for-profit schools.

One thing that we did find surprising was that across the board, males had a greater average parental income than female students within every college tier. This was something that we did not expect to see because there are a number of surveys and data released by universities about their male to female ratio on campus, where there are typically more female students enrolled than male students. As a result, we anticipated that the mean parental income for female students would be greater than males because there were generally a greater proportion of female students at colleges. This was not the case. The mean parental incomes of male students exceeded those of female students, with the greatest difference seen in ivy plus students.

There are many factors that contribute to these results. Some being the difference between public and private universities and the persistent gender pay gap and family structure at these schools. Students who come from single parent households will have a lower mean parental income than students who come from two-parent households where both parents are contributing to the mean parental income. In addition, students raised by with single-mothers or have absentee fathers may have a lower mean parental income due to factors, such as a gender pay gap or a decrease in college enrollment, particularly among males. There are many factors that contribute to these findings, and therefore, we cannot point to one particular reason for as the basis of our conclusions. However, we explore some of these issues further within our topic. We also decided to peak inside the major stratification between these two genders. During the career and college search process, whether as a parent or student, there perhaps may be a strongly considered perspective with scope. Payscale actually performed an analysis on gender and major selection. The conclusion determined that women chose majors that led them to a lower salary than the national median average. According to that same Payscale post, "The percentage of men and women who chose Engineering and Education as their major in response to the American Association of University Women’s (AAUW) study of the gender pay gap. They found Engineering (median pay of $75,000/year) to be male dominated, while Education (median pay of $42,000/year) is dominated by female majors. Therefore, differences in major choice can greatly affect the national pay gap. In an updated research project, we determined 15 common majors for men, 15 common majors for women and 15 common majors with roughly equal numbers of men and women graduates. Similar to AAUW, we find women tend to major in various Design/Art majors, Education, Nursing, and Public Relations, while men tend to major in Engineering, Finance, Computer Science, and Economics. Majors common to both include Accounting, Journalism, Biology, History, English and Mathematics."   [caption id="attachment_474" align="alignnone" width="300"] Commonly picked majors by women[/caption] [caption id="attachment_475" align="alignnone" width="300"] Commonly picked majors by men[/caption]

Across the board, Americans are more likely to graduate from high school, enroll in college, and obtain degrees than they were in the past. However, if we take a closer look, more women are now attending college than ever before and are outpacing men in college enrollment and graduation rates. According to Dr. Vedder, director of the Center for College Affordability and Productivity and professor at Ohio University, there are only 3 men for every 4 women that graduate from four-year colleges. There would be approximately 14% more college graduates each year, and over 2 million in over a decade, if men and women graduated from college in the same proportions. This gender gap is apparent across all ethnicities; however, it is more notable among blacks and Hispanics, where women graduates greatly outnumber men.

Since the Census Bureau started to collect information on higher education attainment, women are now more likely to obtain a bachelor’s degree than men. In 2015, 30.2% of women had a bachelor’s degree while 29.9% of men did. In 2005, only 26% of women had bachelor’s degree while 28.5% of men did. The reason for this increase is due to a rise in young women pursuing higher education. In females between the ages of 25-34, 37.5% of women have a bachelor’s degree or higher, whereas only 29.5% of men do. However, for people over the age of 65, only 20.3% of women compared to 30.6% of men have bachelor degrees or higher. This shift in gender indicates that as times are changing, more women than men are obtaining bachelor degrees.

Many have looked into factors that could have contributed to this growing gender disparity and concluded that gender and family-structure and socioeconomic status differences may have impacted the widening gender gap. According to a study by William Doherty, Brian Willoughby, and Jason Wilde, changes in family structures have led to the growing gender gap in higher education attainment. Both genders of children that grew up with stably married parents were equally likely to succeed at school, However, the absence of a father seemed to lead to less boys obtaining a college education. The researchers obtained longitudinal data on more than 15,000 people who were in 7th to 12th grade in the 1994-1995 school year from Add Health. The results illustrated that out of the participants whose fathers were present, 63.1% of men and 72.1% of women had some college education. From those who had an absent father, 49.2% of men and 61.3% of women had some college education. In addition, socioeconomic status can play a role in the increasing gender gap. As stated by Dr. Vedder, people who have had the most contact with the welfare state through public assistance policies, have also seen a decrease in males obtaining a college education. From these observations, it is likely that family structure and socioeconomic status impacts the widening gender disparity in higher education attainment. Other aspects that would be interesting to look at further would be to see the gender ratios at public and private universities and across different states.

Although college enrollment rates have risen throughout the years, there is a growing gap between the enrollment rates of men and women. More women are now enrolling in colleges than men. This study conducted by Pew Research Center examines the gender gaps in college enrollment across 4 different ethnicities (Hispanic, black, white, and Asian) and compares data from 1994 and 2012. They found that in 1994, three out of four groups had more men enrolled in college than women. The only outlier was that among young white men and women who were enrolled in college immediately after graduation, young white women (66%) exceeded the men (62%) by 4%. By 2012, women enrolling in college immediately after graduating high school was greater than men across all groups.   I think that this is also an interesting aspect to look into concerning our question. Although it lacks the income levels, it includes gender differences in college enrollment between different ethnicities. It also examines possible reasons for the widening gender gap in college enrollments, with some scholars indicating that barriers to entering the labor market for women have been lower while others point to the higher incidence of disciplinary problems among boys in school as a factor. This study also takes note of the changes in demographics in the public school student population. Compared to 1994, there is an increase in diversity in public schools by 2012.