Gender Bender

There is a profound change happening in America. For the first time in our history, women are better educated than men and women are more likely to be the breadwinners in families.

In 2006, female science, health and engineering graduates outnumbered males 56% to 44%. The bachelor's degree-level fields of study with the highest percentage of female graduates were health (86%) and psychology (77%). The recent bachelor's degree fields of study with the highest percentage of male graduates were engineering (78%) and computer and information sciences (77%).

Overall, women earned 58% of all bachelors degrees and 60% of all masters degrees in 2006. The reason: Women appear to have much lower drop out rates than men, in both high school and in college. Among whites, women outnumbered men in college by 1995-1996. Although the number of men entering and graduating from college is rising slightly, the recruitment of women has resulted in steady increases in both the numbers and the percentages.

The disparity between women and men seeking college degrees is greatest among African Americans--60% of African American college students are women, only 40% are men. Among Hispanics, the gap is only slightly smaller--57% are women, 43% are men.

Yet despite the fact that more women are graduating from college than men, male recent graduates still make more money than women: $2.92 less an hour on average.

That wage differential makes sense only if engineering and information sciences are the highest paid areas.

This gender gap extends to unemployment during this economic downturn. According to the Center for American Progress, women are now the breadwinners because more men are losing their jobs than women. Male-dominated job areas are the places where jobs are disappearing: manufacturing, construction, and transportation.

What does this mean? In the area of legal education, there is a move to end tenure, or at least make job security issues more flexible while we are in this economic mess. But this move to end a practice that has established independent scholarship and academic freedom within law schools comes when despite the fact that about half of the students in law school are women, 60% of tenured law faculty are men, white men at that. Law is power, and white men still control.