Where the Boys Aren't—In College

It’s raining women—well at least at The City College of New York.

“It’s obvious! Women are way more motivated than men when it comes to getting their education, stated Krystal Bennet, a 22 year old Advertising and Public Relations major at CCNY.

According to the latest edition of City Facts, the statistical snapshot put out by the Office of Institutional Research proved women outnumber men by 6.4 percent. Compared to the previous edition of City Facts—which showed that women outnumbered men in 2008 by 5.8 percent—the overall female to male ratio has risen 0.6 percent.

“Maybe there are more men at John Jay though because of the schools focus on criminal justice—a manly major,” says Bennett.

These ratios may not seem like a dramatic increase but when looking at the technical figure, statistics show that the CCNY campus has over one thousand more female students than male students. To top it off, City Facts stated in their most recent edition that, “the percent of women in the total student population of the College increased by 6.2% compared to the previous year.”

This female to male ratio at City College is part of a larger national trend. In a recent article by Mary Beth Marklein of USA TODAY, the U.S. Commission of Civil Rights publicized in January that they would investigate the admissions process at a stream of colleges to figure out if these schools were discriminating against females in order to once again even out the tipping gender scale.

“I feel prestigious school would be the culprits for doing such a thing, stated 23 year old Management and Advertising major, Andrea Freire. “To discriminate against females is wrong but Ivy League schools could possibly take that advantage to prove they matriculate an even amount of male to female students every year.”

Since this evaluation started, reports predicted that the gap may expand to an unbelievable 59% female to 41% male by the time 2018 rolls around. Why? Because not only is there nationally a larger number of females than males but other factors like minorities encouragement to apply to college, can eventually hinder this statistic as well.  

 

 In another article written by Marklein, she addresses the fact that while many colleges are trying to form a gender balance on their campuses, national data still proves a 57%-43% difference favoring women who are in college. This is no different from CCNY statistics which almost mimic these same figures.

            “I think it’s great to know more females are enrolled in college than males, stated Freire. “Think about it! Just a few decades ago, women were not even looked upon to further their education.”

           

During a time when genders are looking to balance one another out, there continues to be a negative but stable gap; that being the 57%-43% female to male ratio.

“I don’t believe the gender gap I see hear at CCNY will ever close,” stated Economics major, Kawanny Catr, 22. “You have to consider all the factors and that includes how future generations will be nurtured as well as if education will still be of importance to men.” 

--This article first appeared in CCNY's newspaper, The Campus