Where have all the good men gone?

Author: Arlene Vinion Dubiel

You may recall this first line of Bonnie Tyler’s song from 1984, repopularized 20 years later in “Shrek 2.” This is the question that higher education is asking - “where have all the good men gone?” Douglas Belkin of the Wall Street Journal provided a comprehensive account of the plight of American men in college today. Here, we dive deeper into the numbers, identify underlying causes, and consider ways to re-engage men in our educational system. 

Pandemic effects

The global pandemic has affected all aspects of our society, including higher education. We have seen dramatic shifts to online learning, changes in enrollment and retention, and increases in necessary supports for things like food security and mental health. The pandemic has exacerbated trends that have been progressing slowly over the past several years. 

One of these trends is the overall decrease in enrollment in higher education. It’s estimated that enrollment rates have declined by about 1.67% since 2010. Comparing numbers from before and after the start of the pandemic, enrollment of high school graduates in colleges or universities dropped from 66.2% in fall 2019 to 62.7% in fall 2020. Other estimates show a 3.5% decrease in college enrollment from spring 2020 to spring 2021. Two-year public institutions like community colleges took the most significant enrollment hit from before the pandemic began. These institutions have also seen a decrease in student retention from fall 2019 to fall 2020. No matter where you find the numbers, it is clear that fewer students are attending college because of the pandemic.

College enrollment 

While the pandemic has caused a drop in enrollment, a slow decline in college students has occurred for many years. One possible reason for fewer students could be that we have fewer college-age students as a whole in our population. Indeed, according to the most recent U.S. Census numbers, there is a 1.4% decrease in the number of persons under the age of 18 from 2010 to 2020. Looking at year-to-year data from the National Center for Health Statistics, there are fewer births and a drop in the fertility rate in the U.S. However, a dip in births occurred 1995-1997 and has increased since, meaning that we should be in a slight upswing in the number of potential college students four years ago. In other words, the number of eligible college students alone does not explain the decrease in college enrollment. 

Digging into the numbers, men accounted for 71% of the decline in enrollment numbers compared with five years ago. According to a Bureau of Labor Statistics survey in October 2020, among high school graduates aged 16-24, 66.2% of women were enrolled in college but only 59.3% of men. If you look at the data of college students enrolled at the end of the 2020-2021 academic year, 59.5% are women, and 40.5% are men. While enrollment overall has been dropping, the loss of males has occurred at a higher rate than females. It appears that is simply due to fewer men applying for college. Leaving many to wonder, where are men going? 

Men after high school 

Historically, college was a privilege only available for wealthy men. Men and women were educated separately at single-sex institutions, including all-male Ivy League and military academies. During the civil rights era, many colleges began admitting women. For example, in 1975, then-President Ford signed a law allowing women to attend military academies. Since the allowance of co-educational institutions, the number of single-sex institutions has declined dramatically. Today, there are about 33 active women’s colleges, down from about 280 in the 1960s. But this is nothing compared with all-male colleges. There are currently only three all-male four-year institutions of higher education in the United States: Hampden-Sydney in Virginia, Morehouse in Atlanta, and Wabash in Indiana. 

In short, there are fewer four-year institution choices for men than women. But this alone would not account for the drop in men attending college. It’s possible that men could be attending vocational schools rather than college after high school. Indeed, one report from the state of New York shows that enrollment in local vocational schools has increased, despite the pandemic. But another report looking at national data shows that enrollment in vocational education had declined over the pandemic. So, while there may be variability by region, it is not likely that more men are going to vocational schools after high school. 

So, where are male high school graduates going? According to interviews conducted by journalists from the Wall Street Journal and Hechinger Report, men are going directly into the workforce. They want to make money and do not necessarily have a focus or direction for their future. Until men are sure of their career plans, it makes more sense to work than go into debt for a college education. Unfortunately, history shows that these men will never go to college, even though their earning prospects would improve dramatically with further instruction. In short, men out of high school do not value education.  

Boys in K-12 

We see with college enrollment that women value education more so than men. This gender difference occurs somewhere in K-12. Looking at high school, more girls take honors and AP classes than men. Even within traditionally male-dominated math, only 82 boys are taking advanced math classes for every 100 girls. And, for every 100 girls in the top 10% of their high school class, there are only 79 boys. So, the difference between genders is happening before high school. 

The educational challenge for boys is happening in elementary school. When Dr. Ali Carr-Chellman was asked where we are losing boys from education, her answer was a quick “third grade.” She went on to say that boys are not allowed to read and write what they want and  lose interest in reading and writing. Indeed, testing data supports this assertion that boys are well below girls with reading scores while girls score comparatively well with mathematics.   

The differences in boys and girls in early education are not limited to academics. According to the “For every 100 girls…” update, boys are more than twice as likely to be diagnosed with a learning disability or ADHD or suspended from school. For much of schooling, students must be in a small room with numerous people and are often told to be quiet and not move from their designated space. Boys and girls are different, and in general, girls can succeed in this environment led by almost exclusively female teachers. On the other hand, boys need more activity and more positive male role models who can show them how to succeed in the school environment. 

Men and boys in society

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that the disparities between genders in education result from gender roles in society. This disparity is especially pronounced with boys of color. Before the civil rights era, women were perceived as the “weaker sex,” and their perceived role was to marry and take care of the household and children. Men were perceived as being strong, and their role was to go to work and bring home money. You can see a good rendition of this concept in the rest of Bonnie Tyler’s 1984 song “Holding Out for a Hero” with the lyrics “He’s gotta be strong… he’s gotta be sure… and he’s gotta be larger than life.” 

With education, opportunities, and promotion of women’s rights, women are just as self-sufficient as men. From 1970 to 2000, the number of children living in single-parent households, primarily with mothers, has doubled. Children are spending time with mothers and female teachers. This is a significant loss for boys as there is a distinct lack of positive male role models in their lives.  

College success

Until we can fix some of these issues in our society’s early education years, we will continue to see this trend of fewer males in colleges. But there is still some hope for current high school and college-age men. 

Dual enrollment programs allow students to take college-level courses while still in high school, usually on location or in conjunction with a community college. Students completing these courses receive credit for both high school and college. Male students shared that dual-enrollment classes gave them a sense of empowerment - helping them see that they could be successful in college. 

Some colleges, like the University of Oregon, have developed Men’s Resource Centers. These centers help men to connect and help them succeed in higher education. Where there has been some resistance, more and more colleges are developing these centers to support college men. 

Women tend to value education as a way to earn a living and to become independent. They are outpacing men in college enrollment, college graduation, and leadership roles in colleges. In the current workforce, more men are earning more money and are at higher ranks, but this statistic will flip in the next couple of decades as college-educated women enter and rise through the ranks of the business world. For the betterment of our society, we need to encourage men, just as much as women, to engage in education, mainly post-high school.  

Ready To Jumpstart Your Math Redesign Momentum?

Create effective, equitable & quantifiable change in your math program built on the good work you've already done