Opinion
College & Workforce Readiness Opinion

Women Earning the Majority of PhDs

By Richard Whitmire — September 14, 2010 1 min read
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As this Inside Higher Ed article points out, this is a natural progression. When fewer men than women enter college and fewer men than women earn degrees once in college, this is to be expected.

Colleges are bit players in the gender gaps. K-12 schools, especially elementary schools, are the major players. Not that anyone has told them, of course.

National education leaders treat this issue like a bear trap: don’t even think about getting close. That explains why President Obama delivered a graduation speech at Hampton University and somehow never seemed to notice that his audience was a sea of women.

There are several reasons to be concerned: from an international competitive perspective, we’re not putting our best team forward, especially considering the fact that men tend to major in fields that matter more in that competition. On the personal side, there’s a lot of anguish ahead as more women discover they lack a “marriageable mate” -- a similarly educated man.

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