Gender Education Gap = Trouble?

Greater percentages of women are graduating college than men, and it appears this discrepancy is increasing. I can't help but think about the changes and messages of the last several decades that promote women's issues. Many significant strides have been made, and I think just about anyone can view at least some of them as positive (and most may see mostly positives).

When it comes to marriage, women tend to marry men who are older and more educated than they are. If this "mating gradient" continues, something is going to have to give. Fewer women will be able to find a man with comparable or more education than they have. This means that either 1) more women will not marry, 2) fewer of those who do marry will enjoy the typical financial benefits of marriage, 3) men will begin to catch up with education to become more marriagable, or 4) more married women will carry on significant if not the main responsibility for providing financially for their families. I admit there may be other possibilities, or simply that some or all of these things will happen to particular groups of people.

One likely outcome is that fewer women will marry. However, most women at some point of their lives feel the urge to become a mother. Both external and internal forces probably play into this. We have seen an increase in middle-class professional women becoming single mothers, and this trend could grow due to the education divide mentioned above.

If marriage rates are not affected, then likely the employment hours of mothers (as a group) will increase. This would tend to demand other changes: mother will continue to have fewer children, or fathers will step up and fill the domestic void. The former has been happening more consistently than the latter. In fact, husbands of employed mothers (as a group) are not more involved with domestic responsibilities than are husbands of non-employed mothers. Most employed wives do the lion's share of the work at home as well. This trend could change, of course, but there are many things working against it. A third option is to have more paid childcare. All these options act to change the nature of the modern family--for better or for worse.

How many college-educated young women today are going to be satisfied marrying a man without a college education?

What is easy to forget is that social forces that push one gender one way will also influence the other gender. Females have had effective advocates for some time now, and it is understandable why these advocates have been needed. The argument--whether stated explicitly or not--has been that males don't need an advocate. Perhaps an unintended consequence (some may say it has indeed been intended, at least by more radical elements of feminism) of the unilateral advocacy is an imbalance that will end up doing nobody any favors. This is not to be interpreted as an argument for vilifying feminism, saying it is no longer useful, or that it never should have existed. I'm merely observing an imbalance that could create other social shifts that may be unsatisfying to say the least for many of those who have been benefited in the past by the unbalances advocacy.

Perhaps the easiest solution is to promote education among males. Some find that threatening and believe it will deemphasize education for females. That need not be the message or outcome at all. The fact is that males are disproportionately struggling in elementary school and beyond, be it with grades, behavior/attention disorder diagnoses, dropping out, underenrolling, etc. There is a whole body of literature I won't get into here about these trends. The point is, even if females are thriving by comparison in the educational system, many of them will feel better served if males are keeping pace with them.

The critic will read this and say, "sure, now that males are falling behind you start paying attention to gender inequity in the schools. Nobody cared when females were not keeping pace with men!" There is some truth in that. However, in the past, males did not benefit less by marrying a less educated woman, especially in terms of the domestic elements of a family. The question to answer now is, will women benefit more by having less educated husbands (or no husband at all because the pool of educated elligibles is shrinking)?

Of course there are women who want a lifestyle that is very career-focused and relatively family free--and this trend might work for them. Is that most women? Will society be better off if because of these trends birthrates among the middle class continue to decrease? Will fathers really make a reversal and have domestic responsibilities their main role in terms of time and focus?

Time will tell.

In the mean time, I suggest that emphasizing education for males and females is probably a good thing--and if males need a little extra attention to help them catch up, both men and women will benefit from it.