May-June 2010

by William R. Doyle

Some say that we now have a gender-stratified system of higher education, with nearly 60 percent of all undergraduates being women and fewer men attending each year. Recent media reports have made much of this issue. The question posed by Marcus Weaver-Hightower in this issue is what, if anything, should we— and can we—do about this situation?

The battle for gender equity for women in higher education has been a long and contentious one. In 1947, 29 percent of students in higher education were women. In 1970, their share rose to about 40 percent; by 1980 the split was 50-50. In the decades since, increasing numbers of women have gone to college, to the point where now 57 percent of all students in higher education are women.

William R. Doyle is an assistant professor of higher education at Vanderbilt University. He previously served as a senior policy analyst at the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, where he was project director for the center’s first publication of Measuring Up, the state-by-state report card on higher education.

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