Backgrounder for understanding current gender shifts
The Great Recession has scrambled the timetable for the large-scale economic change already underway, the result of the surge in the number of highly educated women. The two forces, the recession and education gender imbalances, are somewhat related but have definitely become intertwined. Social trends that I consider important, the shifting economic power balances between men and women, are now taking place at a speed too fast to keep up with.
Understanding how these forces mix requires understanding the background of the education trends, and, as Crustyoldacademic reminds me, there’s no better background paper than this, The Homecoming of American College Women.
Tags: recession
November 13th, 2009 at 6:45 pm
I found this paragraph interesting: “One source of the persistent female advantage in K–12 school performance and the new female lead in college attainment is the higher incidence of behavioral problems (or lower level of noncognitive skills) among boys. Boys have a much higher incidence than do girls of school disciplinary and behavior problems, and spend far fewer hours doing homework. Controlling for these noncognitive behavioral factors can explain virtually the entire female advantage in college attendance for the high school graduating class of 1992, after adjusting for family background, test scores, and high school achievement.” In particular, I noted what they said about boys spending far fewer hours doing homework. It set me to wondering, what motivates people to do homework? Is it fear? Is it curiosity? Is it a desire to be obedient? I wonder.