College Degree Attainment Lags For Young Men, Minorities, Study Shows
* 30 pct of women earn bachelor’s degree vs. 22 pct of men
* Whites twice as likely to graduate college by age of 25
* Implications seen for future employment
* 14-year study highlights challenges for U.S. youth
By Susan Heavey
WASHINGTON, March 1 (Reuters) – Wide racial and gender gaps persist among young Americans when it comes to earning a college degree and getting a job, according to fresh data from a 14-year government survey released on Friday.
The study of about 9,000 25-year-olds – part of the so-called “millennial generation” – found 30 percent of such young women in the United States had earned a bachelor’s degree compared to 22 percent of men.
Those women who had at least a bachelor’s degree were more likely to be employed than similarly educated men and spend less time out of work, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics said.
“In general, from ages 22 to 25, individuals with more education held more jobs, worked more weeks, and were less likely to be out of the labor force,” the statistics agency said.
Sociology professor Thomas DiPrete, co-director of Columbia University’s Center for the Study of Wealth and Inequality, said the data highlights a worrying gender gap when it comes to college education, with men slipping behind.
While the study, which began in 1997, did not track wages, “the pattern is quite obvious that the higher educated are doing much better,” said DiPrete, who analyzed other data from the BLS’s long-term survey in his forthcoming book, “The Rise of Women.”
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Women have learn they can not depend upon men for stability so they want to be able to do there own thing.
I once taught elementry ed. I found young boy’s came to school for the first time and didn’t even know their own names, they knew the nick name but not the given name.
Pookie, Lil mic,
They couldn’t read, not even a word or two! Their mama’s thought that is what school is for, so they were 5 years behind from day one and never caught up!
Now this was nearly 30 years ago, it has not gotten any better, so it is easy for me to see why black males are not graduating from the universities, and why the prisons are full of people who look like me. Also why so many of the men who look like me still feel they are held back by some unseen force called the man.
Never suspecting it may be because you have know marketable skills, you don’t communicate well, you don’t understand what dress for success means etc etc
This is what all of the years of “Just Keepin it Real” has gotten us. 40 years of Stagnant growth in our community.
Blaming everyone except our selves!
@Onesilverbac. There are many factors involving the education or lack thereof for African American males. As a mother of two young women and one young man, teaching children during their developmental years from 0 – 6 and exposing them to variety of things are very critical prior to starting formal school. Parental involvement, advocacy, and a stable life are equally important. Otherwise, children are disadvantaged and struggle throughout their entire academic study. Some children are able to overcome, but many are not.
While doing some research to better understand Dr. Ivory Toldson’s post concerning the myth of more black men being in prison than attending college, I noted the degree attainment of African Americans from 2000 to 2011. Mind you, this is simply a snapshot of raw data obtained from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). (I hope this post the columns as typed.) As you can see, both men and women have advanced, particularly, the women. But there is certainly a gap between them based on NCES’ data.
Year Women Men
2000 70,989 37,029
2001 73,204 38,103
2002 77,427 39,196
2003 82,759 41,494
2004 87,390 43,851
2005 90,312 45,810
2006 94,341 48,079
2007 96,968 49,685
2008 100,210 52,247
2009 103,142 53,473
2010 108,673 56,171
2011 113,898 59,119