Human Services News

From EurekAlert! - Breaking News:

Girls have long gotten better grades than boys in all levels of school.

But while at one time few women used those academic skills to get degrees, new research suggests that growing incentives are helping draw women to college in record numbers.

"What has changed is that more women are now using their longstanding academic advantages and translating them into college degrees," said Claudia Buchmann, co-author of the studies and associate professor of sociology at Ohio State University.

"In the 1960s and 70s, girls were getting better grades, but many young women were not going to college, or they were dropping out of college to get married.

In the ASR article, the researchers examined data about students from around the country participating in the National Education Longitudinal Study.

The researchers found that girls did better academically than boys in both 8th grade and in high school.

Overall, 63 percent of women who enrolled in four-year colleges graduated, compared to 55 percent of men.

And the advantage for women was not because they were taking easier majors, or because women used different pathways than men to graduation, such as starting at two-year colleges, the findings showed.

The male disadvantage in earning a college degree is largest for those who grew up in households with a low-educated or absent father.

But the findings showed that women from families with a low-educated or absent father had the biggest increase in college enrollment and graduation.

"There were cultural changes in the United States for women born in the late 1960s, particularly those with less educated parents," she said.

The biggest reason for the gender gap in the graduation rate is that women are doing better in college."

So if girls have long done better academically than boys in elementary and high school, why has women's college graduation rate only surpassed men's in the past 25 years?

Compared to women whose education ended after high school, those with college degrees have a higher probability of getting married and staying married, and marrying a highly educated man with a higher income.

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