What is behind gender inequality in college ?
Writing in Inside Higher Education Allie Grasgreen reports on The Rise of Women, a book by Thomas A. Diprete and Claudia Buchmann which talks about why women continue to "outpace men in education." In the 1970s men outpaced women in bachelor degree completion, but the reverse is true in 2010, with women's graduation rate at 36 percent compared to that of men at 27 percent. The percentage of women participating in STEM majors (science, technology, engineering and math) remains lower than that of men, however, and women earn less than men overall, Grasgreen notes.
Faculty Associate Philip Cohen was interviewed for the article and commented that “The biggest problem for gender inequality among the college-educated remains the lack of gender integration across fields of study.” This means finding out why more girls than boys opt for STEM subjects in high school. Those schools that emphasize STEM subjects see a greater percentage of girls moving into those majors.