Women and Education in the United States, Research Paper Example

The analysis of trends in women’s education in the United States can be approached from a multiplicity of conceptual and theoretical frameworks, such as sociological, anthropological, economic and feminist. All these approaches, however, share the same basic goal, insofar as they wish to understand the key factors constitutive of the relation between women and education. Obviously, in this regard, demographic and empirical data is crucial to subsequently establishing a thesis. Current data denotes an increase of women’s participation in higher education, however, a participation that is not reflected in so-called “top tier” institutions. According to this data, we are to suggest that this phenomenon is the result of women’s relation to education being conceived in terms of education’s social and economic benefits, as opposed to the notion that education in itself is beneficial to women. From this perspective, the increase of women’s participation in education is illusory; women are rather participating in social and economic sectors in a greater number, which requires them to get an education. Hence, this apparent increase is a reflection of the socio-economic overdetermination of education in society, as opposed to a sincere effort to encourage education among women in terms of the benefits of education itself.

The increase in women’s education in the United States is clearly demonstrated by the fact that more women currently pursue higher education than men. As Baker and Velez (1996) note, “the most striking difference in American higher education…is that in many undergraduate institutions, the average student is a woman.” (p. 82) Such a demographic shift represents a radical change in the educational sector within American society, insofar as the major demographic group of education has shifted. Such a shift nevertheless also corresponds to other demographic changes: for example, the average student is also “older than 22, working and perhaps supporting her own family, and possibly attending classes only on a short part-time basis.” (Baker and Velez, 1996, p. 82) This broad range shift in the image of the “traditional student” seems to suggest that education in America is undergoing a certain displacement of its traditional within society. For higher education does not merely follow a high school education in the majority of cases, but rather seems subject to other factors that interrupt and have re-directed the traditional linearity of the education system, a re-direction that intimates a greater societal shift. The key question, is thus what does such a radical shift entail?

From this perspective, the increasing trends in women’s education appear not to the effect of education proper, but rather according to a growing influence on other societal sectors on education, such as economics. That is, economic and societal concerns force students to begin higher education at a later period in life, or higher education may only be pursued after a worker realizes that such an education is necessary for advancement in the work place: women’s education increases are a corollary of this very determination. In other words, the increase in women’s education is not the result of an initiative that would radically promote and support increased women’s education, but is rather the byproduct of greater economic and societal paradigms. One of the supports for this argument is to make a division between types of higher education. For example, women’s trends in increased education are not reflected on the level of “elite educational institutions.” Jacobs (1996), citing a study of women’s education made by Hearth, Persell et al, notes that “women were disadvantaged in access to elite schools.” (p. 155) Accordingly, the greater proportion of women are found “in schools with higher acceptance rates, lower faculty/student ratios, lower standardized test scores, and lower fees.” (Jacobs, 1996, p. 155) The proliferation of women’s education therefore is also complicit with the possibilities of education that are afforded to women in terms of economic and social divisions. Women are represented in institutions that facilitate education as opposed to making education prohibitive. Jacobs (1996) states that “the small remaining sex gap at top-tier schools is due to two factors: 1. The relative scarcity of women in schools with large engineering programs and 2. the tendency of women to enroll in school part-time.” (p. 155) Elite schools are usually populated by full-time students according to the high costs of such universities, which entails that the students generally come from a higher socio-economic background. Accordingly, access to education is determined by such a socio-economic background; moreover, such elite institutions tend to emphasize the educational process itself, as opposed to the educational process merely representing a necessary requirement for employment.

This economic determination of education is also reflected in the logic of women’s organizations that wish to promote women’s participation in higher education. For example, the American Association of University Women (AAUW, 2009) stresses the tie between education and economic concerns: “At current rates, the U.S. will add over 16 million jobs by the year 2018 that require at least some postsecondary education.” For women to remain active in the workforce, it is therefore necessary for women to continue to be encouraged to participate in higher education. Moreover, such necessity is not only spurred by economic concerns, but also that such gender equity has positive societal effects: “a recent College Board report showed that college graduates demonstrate higher levels of civic engagement; they are more likely than high school graduates to vote and to volunteer.” (AAUW, 2009) Accordingly, the issues of trends in women’s education are related to concomitant greater economic and social issues.

One of the shortcomings of such approaches is the construal of the value of education precisely in non-educational terms. In other words, there appears to be a lack of emphasis on the value of education in itself, as if the justification of education must be explained entirely according to another discourse. David Willets (2007) writes that Western societies views towards education seem to be characterized by “a loss of confidence in the importance of transmitting a body of knowledge, a culture, ways of thinking from one generation to the next.” Accordingly, the emphasis on women’s education is not viewed in terms of women’s role in this very process of transmission, but rather that women are conceived as yet another anonymous laborer within the work place. In other words, women’s education must be sustained merely to support economic concerns and to meet economic labor demands. There is thus a profound gap in thinking trends within women’s education in terms of the value in education in itself as opposed to the subsuming of education to other sectors of society that are deemed more important. Arguably the higher presence of women at part-time schools as opposed to higher tier schools means that the increase in women’s education is essentially illusory; women’s education is increasing only to meet economic demands, as opposed to women being educated for the value of education itself.

Thus, despite increasing trends in women’s education in the United States that have seen the woman become the “average student”, the question still remains as to what such an increase means. Judging by the continued gap in the presence of women at higher-tier institutions, this suggests that the increase in women’s education is correlative to economic and social demands as opposed to the value of education. In other words, the real revolution in the increasing participation of women in education has yet to take place – the true presence of gender equity within education would arise from a value conferred to women’s roles in higher education not from an economic or social perspective, but from a radically educational standpoint that emphasizes education itself.

Works Cited

American Association of University Women. (2009). Improve Access to Higher Education. Retrieved from: http://www.aauw.org/act/issue_advocacy/actionpages/upload/higherEdAct.pdf

Baker, Therese L. and Velez, William. (1996). Access to and Opportunity in Postsecondary Education in the United States: A Review. Sociology of Education, Vol. 69, 82-100.

Jacobs, Jerry A. (1996). Gender Inequality and Higher Education. Annual Review of Sociology, Vol. 22, 153-185.

Willets, David. (2007, October 17). We must value Education for itself, not just to get a Job. The Sunday Times. Retrieved from: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/education/article2701393.ece