Rhode Island women are earning college degrees at the state’s public and private universities at a much higher rate than men, according to new research. The number of women who earned post-secondary degrees from public schools in 2000 was 85 percent higher than the number of men who earned the degrees.
That women are making advances in academia here is welcome news. But the trend spells trouble for Rhode Island’s future economic success, ruining the creation of a balanced, educated work force, say researchers at Northeastern University. The trend could even have negative social consequences, including declines in marriage rates and increases in family poverty and out-of-wedlock childbearing in Rhode Island, according to researchers who conducted the study.
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“The growing educational disparity is serious cause for concern, especially as it relates to men’s earnings potential and their ability to form families and keep Rhode Island economically healthy,” said economist Paul Harrington, associate director of Northeastern University’s Center for Labor Market Studies and one of the authors of the report.
The study, which was commissioned by the Rhode Island Office of Higher Education, examined data from 1990 and 2000, comparing the numbers of men and women who earned associate’s, bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the state’s public and private colleges and universities.
“Before we can remedy this problem of gender disparity, we must understand the dimension of the problem and its likely underlying causes, and that’s what this study helps us do,” said Jack Warner, commissioner of the Rhode Island Board of Governors for Higher Education. “From here, we can better address the educational and developmental needs of men as they move through Rhode Island’s education system.”
Researchers also discovered that Rhode Island men were more likely to earn their college degrees from private colleges, while women college graduates were much more concentrated in public institutions. On average in 2000, women earned 184 public school post-secondary degrees for every 100 men, and 115 post-secondary private school degrees for every 100 men from Rhode Island colleges.
The researchers attributed the trend to the fact that public institutions offer academic courses that are more appealing to women, including education, liberal arts and the health professions. Private universities tend to attract men seeking degrees in business, criminal justice, engineering and computer science.
A striking development was the decline in the number as well as academic level of post-secondary degrees earned by men. Fewer men earned post-secondary degrees or certificates in 2000 compared to 1990, and the degrees earned by men were more likely to be a certificate than a bachelor’s or master’s degree.
Between 1990 and 2000, the number of women per 100 men earning a one- to two-year certificate declined from 380 to 292 while the number of bachelor’s degrees awarded to women per 100 men increased from 115 in 1990 to 129 in 2000. During the same period, the female to male ratio of master’s degrees awarded increased from 96 to 142 women per 100 men during the 1990s.
Rhode Island’s experience of widening gender gaps in post-secondary degrees is not unique – the research mirrored trends in colleges throughout the nation, according to the study’s authors.
But the difference in the gender gap between college and other degrees earned in Rhode Island is larger than any state in the nation.
In 2000, Rhode Island was ranked among the top five states with the largest gender gap in degrees conferred by public institutions while it simultaneously achieved the distinction of being among the bottom five states with the smallest gender gap in degrees conferred by private institutions.
