signs of the impending gynarchy: the growing college gender gap

Anticipating a coming gynarchy may be a bit premature (and naive, I know, as there are structural impediments - producing way more female PhDs hasn't led to a female-majority tenured professoriate by any means). I for one welcome our distaff overlords (overladies?); the world would likely be a better place.

Nevertheless the following stats reported in my Current Issues in Education class at Temple are cause for real concern:
Women are going to college at starkly higher rates than men and the disparity continues to grow. The question put to the class was whether we should care, and the consensus, unsurprisingly but disappointingly, was no. Issues of equality are admittedly prickly; we surely should not seek to right this circumstance in justice's name. But the issue is stark in both human capital and "civic capital" terms. In this the information age, as should be particularly clear in such bleak economic times, we owe it to ourselves and our children to maximize our collective stock of knowledge and skills. It's the sole path to modern prosperity. In the small and in the short run, there are alternatives, and I've argued that many folks are pushed in the baccalaureate degree's direction who'd be better served by different pursuits. Those arguments notwithstanding, in total and in the long run, we need as many folks as can stand to benefit to study and to get degrees. And if men as a class appear to be losing interest in college, we are obliged to understand why and to remedy to the extent possible. I know men are a minority, but it's a really substantial minority. Irrespective of your particular naughty bits, we need you to be studying if you are able to benefit from doing so.

And for those who are unmoved by the human capital argument (you know who you are, and I don't like you particularly, by the way), how about the fact that education and civic participation are strongly correlated as well. If prosperity's not your thing, perhaps participative democracy is.

One caveat: With regard to civic participation and to a lesser extent even human capital, not all of the abovementioned correlation is causation: The better educated are more likely to vote not strictly as a result of their education. Undoubtedly to some extent those most likely to seek education are also those ex ante most likely to vote. Still, there's absolutely GOT to be some causation in that correlation, and we need, in unprecedented ways, to wring it out.