More women are going to college now than men. 70 percent of women had some college experience, where only 61 percent of men had attended college at some point.
A study of 9,000 young Americans conducted by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics found that 32 percent of women, in comparison to 24 percent of men, had received a bachelor’s degree by the age of 27 – an 8-point, 33.3 percent gender gap. Women with more education held more jobs than women with less, but regardless of education, men held a similar number of jobs.
And while higher levels of education linked women to more jobs than those less education, level of education among men made no difference in the number of jobs held. Over two-thirds of the jobs held by high school dropouts from age 18 to 26 were held less than a year and 10 percent were held 2 years or more.
Women were also more likely to finish their college degree than men. Of the 70 percent of women who started college, 46 percent completed their bachelor’s degree by 27. Among men, only 39 percent of the 61 percent who started college completed their bachelor’s degree.
Some of the top universities in the country have a greater female-to-male ratio. Columbia University (50.3 percent female), University of Texas (50.5 percent), Rice University (57 percent) and Florida Atlantic University (60 percent) are a few universities sampled that have the majority of their student body is of the female sex.
As women leave their mark in the classroom, does it pay afterward? It has long been said that men make more money than women for the same job. According to Claudia Goldin, a Harvard labor economist, women nurses make 89 percent of what male nurses make; veterinarians – 81 percent; dentists – 74 percent; and financial specialists – 66 percent.
Research from Wells Fargo showed that educated men made $20,000 more than women with the same education level. Even in occupations primarily made up of women, men still tend to earn more. So while women have equaled and passed men when it comes to the total number of women getting an education, they are still not equal when it comes to pay.
References:
http://careercollegecentral.com/news/women-33-percent-more-likely-men-earn-college-degree
http://study.com/articles/Leaving_Men_Behind_Women_Go_to_College_in_Ever-Greater_Numbers.html
http://time.com/2870940/millennial-women-are-still-getting-paid-less-than-men/