His and Hers: The Higher Ed. Experience
An opinion piece in the Chronicle of Higher Education by Linda Sax discusses the differences between men’s and women’s college experiences.
I know what you’re thinking. I was thinking it too. Sax beat us both to the punch:
“The popular messages are oversimplified,” she writes. ”Gender equity has been achieved, women are an academic success story, and men are experiencing an educational crisis. Each of those messages has some truth, but they tend to convey the status of women and men as a zero-sum game: If one gender is succeeding, the other must be failing. The reality is that both genders face obstacles and challenges in their pursuit of higher education, and we need a deeper understanding of the nuances and implications of the gender gap in college.”
Having re-oriented her readers to her subject, Sax goes on to discuss the benefits and deficits that women and men each bring to college, and the ways the higher education affects each.
Here are a few highlights of particular interest to housing professionals:
- Connection to home and family: Until recently, it was assumed leaving home and developing an independent lifestyle was an important milestone for both men and women, writes Sax. However, recent studies seem to show that for men, living close to home or far away doesn’t make a difference in their college development. However, it is important for college women to leave home; college women forced to cope without the support of family develop academic confidence, leadership skills and emotional resilience.
- Academic and social involvement: Perhaps the above facts can be explained, in part, by the differences between men’s and women’s academic and social lives before, and during college. During high school, and even in college, women tend to take on more responsibilities within their families. While this can be a source of support, it can also be stressful, and limit how much the student can become involved in college. Perhaps women who live further away from home are freed from these responsibilities, either because they are living far away, or because they were able to live far away. Men are less likely to have such obligations. Both before and during college, men report spending considerably more time relaxing: watching TV, playing video games, partying, etc., than women do. A goal for colleges, writes Sax, is to encourage men to be more socially and intellectually involved during their free time–anything from volunteering to an internship–while encouraging women to relax a bit more.A fact that we’ve all heard has an interesting corollary. It has been often-repeated that women have better study habits in high school and in post-secondary education. However, when men do study, their gains, in interest in the subject and their academic ambition, are much greater than those of women. How can men be encouraged to study more? How can women be encouraged to study more deeply?
- Diversity programs’ disparate impacts: Men are more unnerved by diverstity experiences and programs. This grouping includes informal experiences, such as having a roommate of another race, to a class project on diversity. Interestingly, men also benefit more from diversity experiences as well, becoming more interested in the topic and how they can affect race or ethnic relations. Women are not as emotionally challenged by diversity experiences, but they are also not as changed by them, either.
- Crisis of confidence:Despite usually being more diligent students, women report lower academic confidence than men do. This occurs at the beginning of college, and then the gap grows during the following four years. Why is this? Are the women under-reporting, out of an obligation to modesty, or are they less confident for other reasons?
For more of Sax’s discussion, see the Chronicle’s website. It’s refreshing to read an article about gender differences in education without pitting women and men against each other. After all, men and women aren’t in separate vacuums, but going through this experience together. Perhaps their different perspectives can be used to each others’ benefit.
