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The gender gap in higher education

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Once an exclusively male privilege, higher education is becoming an

increasingly female experience.

In the 2010–11 academic year, the students who enrolled at university

in the UK were 55% female and 45% male.

There are currently 20 UK institutions with twice as many female

undergraduates as there are male undergraduates.

In autumn 2012, females were one-third more likely to start a degree

course than their male counterparts.

Gender and higher education


There has been a 13% fall in admissions to higher education since the

introduction of higher fees in October 2012. However, the fall in

admissions from young men has been about twice that of young women.

What explanations can you think of for this?

UCAS states that 2012 entry rates were 24.6% from males and 32.5%

from females. Only Oxbridge seems to be bucking the trend, with slightly

more male than female students.

Why might this be the case?

Admissions


Subject choice

There are still gender differences in subject choice, although these are

not always what you might think.

Degree subjects dominated by women include veterinary science and

subjects allied to medicine and education.

However, men still outnumber women in computer science, engineering

and technology.


Students obtaining undergraduate degrees 2011–12 (1)

Subject area % female % male

Medicine and dentistry 57.6 42.3

Subjects allied to medicine 82.1 17.9

Biological sciences 60.8 39.2

Veterinary science 79.4 20.6

Agriculture and related subjects 63.0 37.0

Physical sciences 42.6 57.4

Mathematical sciences 42.2 57.8

Computer science 17.4 82.6

Engineering and technology 14.3 85.7

Architecture, building and planning 29.7 70.3


Students obtaining undergraduate degrees 2011–12 (2)

Subject area % female % male

Social studies 64.5 35.5

Law 61.7 38.3

Business and administrative studies 51.4 48.6

Mass communications 55.4 44.6

Languages 68.9 31.1

Historical and philosophical studies 54.4 45.6

Creative arts and design 61.7 38.3

Education 80.4 19.6

Combined subjects 60.1 39.9

Source: Higher Education Statistics Authority (HESA)


Reasons for the change

Women are increasingly aware of the importance to their future of a good

academic qualification. Many women no longer see their future as simply or

mainly a wife/mother, and as someone dependent on a male partner’s salary.

Seeing themselves as the future breadwinner and main supporter of a wife

and family, men are more concerned than women about starting working life

with a university-accrued debt. They may also be more concerned about

levels of graduate unemployment, though it is not clear why this is the case.

There have been relatively few programmes aimed at getting more males

into higher education.

There are links to attainment patterns in school. Girls now outperform boys

and are more likely to stay on to take A-levels.

Not enough research has yet taken place to identify the reasons for the increasing undergraduate gender gap. Below are some possible reasons.


What happens to graduates?

A report was published in February 2013 by the Higher Education Careers

Services Unit (HECSU). Researchers analysed data from a longitudinal

study of 17,000 recent graduates in full-time employment. They looked at

how much these graduates earned in 2012.

The findings showed that female graduates were earning considerably less

than their male counterparts across all degree subject areas — even when

comparing men and women from the same types of university who had

studied the same subjects. It also applied to subject areas where women’s

participation rates are greater than those of men. This is despite laws

designed to ensure equal access to jobs and pay.


Graduate pay (1)

Jane Artess, of HECSU, gave the example of media-related subjects,

where female graduates were no more or less numerous than their

male counterparts and yet their earnings were typically lower.

Looking at wages by sector, Artess said that the male lead in pay

was persistent in both the public and private sectors, in graduate

workplaces and in both graduate and non-graduate job roles.

The only area in which female pay was equal to males was in the

not-for-profit sector.


Graduate pay (2)

Earnings Men Women

Below £23,999 55.6% 70%

Above £24,000 44.4% 30%

Source: Higher Education Careers Services Unit, February 2013


Women and higher education: the early years (1)

Higher education for women has come a long way in the last 150 years.

In 1869 three women — Emily Davies, Barbara Bodichon and Lady Stanley

of Alderley — helped to establish Girton College, Cambridge, the first

university college for women. However, it was not recognised by the

university authorities, and was not allowed to be sited anywhere near

the main colleges — in fact, it was set up in Hitchin, Hertfordshire.

In 1880 another women’s college, Newnham, was established at Cambridge.


Women and higher education: the early years (2)

At the time that Girton College was established, doctors thought that the

female brain weighed 150 grams less than the male brain. They warned

that excessive study would cause women’s wombs to wither and die, and

they would become infertile.

By 1910 there were just over 1,000 women students at Oxford and Cambridge.

However, they had to gain permission to attend lectures

and were not allowed to take degrees.

It was not until 1910 that women were allowed to train as accountants

and bankers.


Women and medicine: the early years

Despite growing pressure from women to train as doctors, they were not

allowed to do so. The work of Florence Nightingale showed that women could,

however, be valuable when allowed to work as nurses.

The first female doctor in England was Elizabeth Garrett Anderson. Her father

paid for private lectures in medicine, as no medical school would admit her.

She obtained her Doctor of Medicine degree in Paris in 1870 but it was not

recognised by the British Medical Register.

In 1874 the London School of Medicine for Women was opened by a group

of women and more women began to train, but they faced extreme prejudice

from both doctors and surgeons. Although medical training was permitted

for women in 1876, many universities refused them access, and the Royal

College of Surgeons refused to allow women to take any of its exams.


Women and medicine

The medical profession finally allowed women to become doctors, but

in 1900 there were only 200 female doctors in England — just 1%.

Female doctors played an important role in the First and Second World Wars,

but practising medicine was still seen as primarily a male role, with women

more suited to nursing. As late as 1971, only 18% of UK doctors were female.

In 2012, women made up 40% of all doctors, 42% of GPs and 28% of

consultants. By 2017 the number of female doctors is expected to exceed

that of males.

However, demands on women regarding children and family life mean that

women tend to shy away from areas such as surgery and anaesthesia, which

typically involve long and unpredictable hours and on-call commitments.

Thus, despite a vastly improved picture, gender differences do still remain.

the gender gap in higher education fotolia. the gender gap in higher education once an exclusively...

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