Education Trends of Women in the United States, Essay Example

Long neglected in educational opportunities, girls and women now have access to classrooms once occupied solely by males. Compared to a century ago, opportunities for education now flourish for females. Questions persist, however, about the equal treatment of girls and the equal expectations of them now that the educational playing field has leveled mostly. Today, at a time when opportunities abound for traditional and non-traditional female students, even those with means that are more limited and possess few, if any, educational credentials can find outlets that engage them as learners. Prins, Toso, and Schafft (2009) conducted research on numerous adult women who lacked essential reading ability who thrived in family literacy programs. Their gain from learning to read was obvious and anticipated; however, the residual gains they experienced from social interaction, support, and self-discovery with their marginalized peers was overwhelming, causing them to form “family” one with another.

Perhaps some residue remains from the days of the male breadwinner who, because of that fact, needs an education and the female, stay-at-home mother and domestic engineer who, as a result, does not. Recent investigations reveal a shift in women’s attitudes toward breadwinner functions when women are in school. The more schooling they receive, the more women their attitudes shape around ideas about whom should provide family incomes (Cunningham, 2006). It is a women’s time in school that influences her feelings more so than their experiences in their jobs.

With the backgrounds already provided (education provides social interactions for women and education affects social outlooks for women) several trends in the education of females in the United States are noted. These have to do with sports, gender-specific classrooms, college admissions, harassments, education for the marginalized, and achievement (as compared to that of males), absorption of subject content, and time in school.

Title IX is a piece of federal legislation from 1972. It is credited with the subsequent, burgeoning rise of female health education and athleticism in this country (King, 2001). Before Title IX, sports participation was limited for females. Well into the 20^th century, girls were relegated to half courts in basketball (the weaker sex) and to cheering for others (because it would not be lady-like to do otherwise). Now, women have equal access in schools. This allows then to dream about intercollegiate competition and even beyond and the endorsements and salaries that support the business of professional sports.

A more recent, developing trend in the education of women is actually a throw back to earlier times when sexes were separated routinely for the purposes of instruction. Recent figures indicate that women represented 57% of the college acceptances issued by colleges last year (Greenberger, 2009). The trend has been on the rise for the last two decades. If this trend continues, females will exclusively attend more classes.

Migdal, Martin, Lewis, and Lapidus (2008) noted a trend in casualness of educational institutions in turning their heads away from sexual harassment reports of female students. Such inattention, they contend, causes educational inequity and reduces educational opportunity. School indifference to this, at any educational level, are rooted in stereotypes that die hard. This trend is disturbing for its negation of accepted human rights and domestic law. Gender bias, such as not taking harassment reports seriously, cause females to opt out of numerous educational opportunities that interest them.

Often, overlooked places where the female populations are educated are prisons. Between 1990 and 2000, the female prisoners rose 108% (Ellis, McFadden, & Colaric, 2008). Communication about educating the imprisoned is of utmost importance to policy makers who have the job of improving educational delivery in correctional facilities. Many of these women will re-emerge into society, following release, with needs that run from having employment abilities to knowing how to mange personal, life, skills.

It appears that there is evidence to suggest that colleges and universities discriminate against women in their admissions policies. The reason for this that colleges are afraid that their campus populations will swing decidedly in favor of girls if they hold male applicants to the same criteria as they do females (Whitmire, 2009). Some private universities report much higher acceptance rate percentages for the boys than they do for the girls. Public universities, such as the University of Georgia, got a legal thumping a few years ago, when its preferences for male and minority applicants over women were aired.

Despite this fact, more than half of the college graduates in the United States this year will be female. Expect to see more coeducational colleges go past a tipping point of  60% female in the near future. “There is no easy answer as to what’s legal and what isn’t legal” (Greenberger, 2009). University spokespeople take the position that they can create the kinds of educational environments that they want to in order to preserve the academic and social community for which they are known.

Within academic environments, girls are doing quite well, and, compared to their male counterparts, they are excelling. According to one observer of this phenomenon, “What we haven’t seen is that educational achievement translating into the same workplace achievement and pay equity. Women are closing gaps in terms of education, but that may not be translating in terms of the job market (Manzo, 2004, p. 10). In short, girls achieve more success in school than do boys, but boys make more money when they come out of academia and into the workforce. The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) has accounted for much of the absorption of content that proves the trustworthiness of claims about female superiority on nationwide assessments (Reading Today Editors, 2000).

Trends in education equity pay particular attention to how females fare in assessments of reading, writing, science, and mathematics. This receives monitoring because, if females are going to be competitive in the marketplace, they will need equitable preparation as compared to those that exist for males. White House Statistics Briefings (2004) reports sustain the notion that girls do better than boys in reading writing and have generally lagged behind boys in math –but not by much. In science, a field that has great possibilities in our age of technological advance, boys and girls almost overlap. One study will report the boys ahead, while another will give an edge to girls.

We know that girls stay in school almost a year longer, on average than males (Nationmaster, 2010). Maybe this tenacity of girls and women, to stay in school, will  one day be rewarded by our society in better paying jobs that carry more weight of authority and the influence that accompanies it. One thing looks certain, women have to do more in order to be understood, valued, and promoted equally. This is the bottom line trend for women in U. S. education.

References

Cunningham, M. (2008). Changing attitudes toward the male breadwinner, female homemaker family model: influences of women’s employment and education over the life course. Social Forces, 87(1), 299-323.

Editors. (2000). NCES studies equity in education for women. Reading Today, 18(2), 37.

Ellis, McFadden, & Colaric. (2008). Factors influencing the design, establishment, administration, and governance of correctional education for females.

Greenberger. (2009). U. S. Civil Rights Commission Investigates College Admission Bias. U. S. News and World Report, November 16.

King, B. (2001). Women’s pre-title IX sports history in the United States. Position Paper: Women’s Sports Foundation. 26 Apr. Retrieved 27 Mar 2010 from http://www.womenssportsfoundation.org?content/Articles/Issues

Nationmaster. (2010). Duration of females in school. Nationmaster Educational   Statistics. Retrieved 27 Mar 2010 from           http://www.nationmaster.com/red/country/us-united-states/edu-education&all=1

Manzo, K. (2004). Women outpace men in college achievement, report says. Community College Week, 17(10), 10-11.

Migdal, A., Martin, E., Lewis, M., & Lapidus, L. (2008). The need to address equal educational opportunities for women and girls. Human Rights, 35(3), 9-12.

Prins, E., Toso, B., & Schafft, K. (2009). It feels like a little family to me: Social interaction and support among women in adult education and family literacy. Adult Literacy, 59(4), 335-352.

White House Briefing Room. (2004). Trends in education equity for girls and women. National Center for Educational Statistics. Retrieved 27 Mar 2010 from http://nces.ed.gov/ssbr/pages/trends_educationequity.asp     

Whitmire, R. (2009). The latest way to discriminate against women. Chronicle of Higher Education, 53(46), 46.