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Women with university degrees are morethan men, why?

According to the latest census data, American women have, for the

first time, passed men in gaining advanced college degrees as well as

bachelor's degrees.

Amongst Latinos, a similar trend exists, where females are obtaining

the majority of college degrees compared to their male counterparts.Ifthat was not enough, Latinas are also the fastest growing segment of

the female market and the most influential group within the Hispanic

population in the United States today.

While the success of all women is something to be celebrated and

encouraged, it is important to ponder why males, especially males of

color, are not achieving the same success in academia.

So, here are a few, but very prevalent reasons as to why males are not

being successful in our education system:

1. Schools are not meeting the developmental needs of boys. A highly

publicized 1992 report by the American Association of University

Women titled,How Schools Short-Change Girls, got people to focus

on girls by presenting vast amount of research on gender inequalities.

This, in turn, meant expanding curriculum in ways that suit girls

rather than boys, with an increase of discursive, 'soft' subjects likegeneral studies, sociology or drama. However, the evidence suggests

that boys and girls learn in different ways. According to Melanie

Phillips's "The Feminisation of Education, "girls gain more

satisfaction than boys from understanding the work they are doing.

Boys, on the contrary, are more 'ego-related', gaining more

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satisfaction from competing with each other. Nevertheless, education

policy denies such differences and imposes instead an agenda of

'equality'".

2. An over-representation and over-labeling of minorities in specialeducation classes, specifically emotional or behavioral disorders

(EBD) classes, exists. One of the reasons for such over-representation

and over-labeling of boys of color could be attributed to the lack of

male teachers of color in the U.S. educational system. The contrast in

cultural backgrounds between the students and their European

American teachers may be the source of misunderstandings,

differential treatment of students of color, and cultural mismatches

between them.

3. Studies show that boys from fatherless homes are much less likely

to attend college while the same effect has not been apparent in girls.

2009 estimates indicate that 41 percent of U.S. births occurred

outside of marriage. According to Child Trends, "In 2008, 72 percent

of all births to black women, 66 percent of births of American Indian

or Alaskan native women, and 53 percent of births to Hispanic

women occurred outside of marriage, compared with 29 percent for

white women and 17 percent for Asian or Pacific Islander women".

Consequently, we have a large proportion of fatherless children,

which is due to factors such as unequal divorce and parental rights for

men as well as U.S. immigration law failure to unify and

reunite immigrant families.

The high drop-out rate of males, especially males of color, failure to

graduate from high school and go onto higher education is attributed

to a variety of factors. While the short list provided above is neitherextensive nor comprehensive, it helps illustrate how there is no

simple solution to reforming the U.S. education system to better serve

all students, regardless of race/ethnicity and gender. So while it may

seem like proper education of our children is a problem rooted in

wide social, economic, and political systemic flaws, it is important to

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