Gender Gap in College

In a new book by Linda J. Sax, a professor of education at UCLA, she examines the differences between the male and female college experience. Sax stresses that even though the majority of college students are female (more than 60% female at many institutions), the numbers don't tell the whole story and hide some key concerns.

For this study, Sax collected data from 17,000 male and female students from 200 institutions. One difference her analysis revealed was that females enter college with a lack of confidence. In contrast, their male counterparts have much more confidence at this stage. In other words, even if the females are doing better academically than the males, they do not believe they are doing so. Perhaps even more troubling is that the confidence levels of female college students decline during the college years. However, female students who have positive interactions with the faculty gain self-confidence over time.

Another interesting finding is related to the gender makeup of the students and the faculty as well as the peer groups for students. Students (males and females) do better academically at institutions with a high proportion of female students and faculty. Further, males perform better academically at institutions that have peer support groups that support "traditional gender roles."

There are many other findings outlined in Sax's book. In fact, she found 584 “college effects” that differ between male and female students. While the number of females may equal or exceed the number of males on college campuses around the nation, their experiences may be quite different.