Sunday, March 22, 2015

Progress Towards Gender Equality

Ever since the 1970s, the ratio of female to male students enrolled in college has been steadily climbing. From 1985 to this year, the percentage of female college students has increased from 46% to 56%.  Those numbers would have been inconceivable just a few decades ago, however, today girls are dominating education, surpassing their male counterparts in standardized testing in reading, writing and science, and closing the gap in math (The Economist)

According to a recent article in The Economist, "The Weaker Sex", this shift in academic performance and college enrollment is not caused solely by girls. The reality is that teenage boys are falling behind in school, living in a social environment where it is "not cool for for them to perform". Boys are "50% more likely than girls to fail to achieve basic proficiency in any of maths, reading and science". It is predicted that the number of girls in college may surpass boys even further, "rising to 58%" of all students.

The most pressing question that The Economist article raises is: "So are women now on their way to becoming the dominant sex?" Based off of these numbers, one might jump to the conclusion: Yes. However, though the numbers show great progress for women in education, the battle for gender equality is not necessarily over. It is essential to consider that school is not the only area in which women must overcome injustices.

There is a glaring gender disparity in income that seems entirely unexplained. The truth is that women only earn three quarters of what their male counterparts are paid. If women are superior, more ambitious students, then why is that? Assuming a high level of education translates into job performance, the income difference is ridiculous.

Also, of all the C.E.O.'s of the Fortune 500 companies, only 24, or 4.8%, were female as of last year. Although I do not mean to suggest that that is the best factor to measure with, it is certainly telling about women's leadership rolls in business. The lack of females in charge of big companies may show how women are still discriminated against when it comes to expressing authority or leadership, despite the fact that women are more academically qualified as a sex.

Are these factors ones that will change fairly soon, as an older generation of men and women are replaced in the workforce? Or will the unjust inequality persist if nothing is done to correct it?

1 comment:

  1. Solid revision of this post you showed me a while ago. I think it leaves plenty of room for the reader to respond.

    ReplyDelete