Men are turning away from college and the shift could have profound implications for the economy, their health and the American family. Today, only 39% of young men who have completed high school are enrolled in college, down from 47% in 2011, according to a recent analysis by Pew Research. That works out to about 1 million fewer young men in college compared to just over a decade ago.
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“It’s now clear that there are many boys and men who have fallen behind and that we have to be able to think about gender inequality in both directions,” Reeves said in a recent TED Talk.
Four-year universities aren’t the only schools with fewer men, community colleges have also seen enrollment dip in recent years, the National Bureau of Economic Research has found.
“It’s not the fact that the skilled trades are luring many of these men away from the college pathway. Many of the men who are not pursuing college today are not going into the skilled trades,” said Zack Mabel, a research professor at the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce.
Fewer men in school could worsen labor shortages in fields that depend on additional training and education. That may present a challenge for fast-growing sectors like health care.
More than 70% of jobs over the next decade will go to workers with some education beyond high school, according to researchers at Georgetown. That percentage jumps to 85% for the types of jobs that provide financial stability.
Over a lifetime, workers with bachelor’s degrees typically earn $1.2 million more than those with only a high school diploma. Those with degrees are also less likely to lose jobs when the economy sours.
So are men pursuing other types of education instead? Not exactly.
“Many young men are foregoing education in training programs and associate’s degrees and so our entire economy as a whole is potentially not going to have enough workers to fill a lot of those skilled positions,” Mabel said.
Men are more likely than women to suffer “deaths of despair” stemming from drug overdoses, alcohol-liver disease and suicide. They’re also more likely to die from cancer.
Today, women live about six years longer than men in the United States and college-educated Americans live about 8.5 years longer than those without a bachelor’s degree. Thirty years ago, that education gap was 2.5 years.
Risk for relationships
In 2015, 65% of college-educated adults 25 and older were married, compared to 50% of those with no education beyond high school, according to Pew. In 1990, the marriage rate was above 60% for both groups.
Because people with college degrees tend to partner with each other, the gender imbalance on campus has led to a broader mismatch in the dating market.
Most young men, over 60%, are single today. And women, particularly those who are college-educated, say they’re struggling to find someone who “meets their expectations.”
Some, like NYU Professor Scott Galloway, have warned that the college gender gap, and the “mating inequality” that follows, pose an “existential risk” to society.
Men are skipping college: 4 reasons why you should pay attention, Andrew Dorn, News Nation, January 5, 2024
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