The College Gender Gap, by Linda Sax, is coming out. It’s not what you might expect. In fact, Sax suggests people like me are wasting their time worrying about gender imbalances. It’s not the numbers, she argues, but the qualitative differences in how men and women experience college. I would argue that numbers do matter: With college functioning as the new high school, there’s no reason why men should not be going to college at the same rates as women. Still, she has some interesting points.

Here’s her Chronicle of Higher Education commentary:

September 26, 2008

Her College Experience Is Not His
By LINDA SAX

At a time when national attention is focused on the relative numbers of women and men on college campuses, little is known about the characteristics of the two genders and how aspects of college further shape those characteristics. The popular messages are oversimplified: Gender equity has been achieved, women are an academic success story, and men are experiencing an educational crisis.

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