Women widening education gap
By Beverly Creamer
Advertiser Education Writer
Rosie the Riveter has now become Rosie the Researcher, as the numbers of women graduating from college continue to outpace their male counterparts in a trend that could have far-reaching social significance, according to national demographers.
According to the latest fall figures, the gender gap at the University of Hawai'i has widened to 56.7 percent of the bachelor's degrees being earned by women compared with 43.3 percent by men, just as it's widening at universities across the country.
Nationally, the number of women graduates who received bachelor's degrees has risen to an estimated 57 percent — the highest since women left their homes and went to work after World War II.
The trend is beginning to receive so much attention, according to The Washington Post, that the national Business Roundtable has commissioned a study, Harvard University is looking into the issue, and social scientists are wondering if this will create a mating dilemma for women who may be more literate than their potential dates.
At UH the gap began widening through the boom enrollment years of the 1980s, said Sharyn Nakamoto, director of the institutional research office, until by the early 1990s there was a more than 10 percent differential between the two.
"This trend has been consistent since 1991," said Nakamoto.
At Hawai'i Pacific University the same thing is happening — if you don't include classes on the military bases, which tend to even things out — but Scott Stensrud, HPU's associate vice president of enrollment management, encourages a deeper analysis.
"This has been an issue in the admissions area for at least 10 or 15 years," he said. "There have been higher percentages of women attending college than men.
"At the beginning everyone was encouraged that more women were seeking higher education, but now that it has sustained itself, we're seeing the long-term effects."
But Stensrud said the disparate breakdown could be reflecting heightened recruitment by military services over the past decade — aimed predominantly at men.
"The military has been recruiting very heavily about getting your education by joining up," he said. "If that whole population isn't being counted, that could certainly skew the numbers."
He also said the figures could be reflecting a return to college by older women students who put their educations on hold while they raised families or worked.
"One of the fastest growing segments across the country has been returning students," he said, "and if those are predominantly women whose educations were interrupted for other reasons, maybe they're just catching up."
Reach Beverly Creamer at bcreamer@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8013.
