More Women in College Now than Ever Before

It’s amazing to see how far women have come in the pursuit of higher education. We can think back to the 1950s, where women were discouraged by their families and society as a whole to pursue a college degree or get a job. In fact, a smaller percentage of women attended college in the 1950s than in the 1920s. Even when women attended and graduated from college, there was the expectation those college graduates would soon get married and start a family. A high school diploma was considered enough education for a female.

But the times change and the stats prove it. Today the number of women in college exceeds the number of males in the US. And the numbers keep rising. Between 1990 and 2000, enrollment in higher education institutions increased by 11%, while from 2000 to 2010, that number increased 37%. The number of females enrolling in degree-granting programs rose 39 percent in that time period.  At public institutions, about 58 percent of females seeking a bachelor’s degree graduated within 6 years, compared with 53 percent of males; at private nonprofit institutions, 67 percent of females graduated within 6 years, compared with 63 percent of males.

Graduation rates for females have also been consistently increasing for female students and have been higher than male students. The Institute for Education Sciences found that from 1999–2000, 60% of all associate degrees and 57% of bachelor’s degrees were awarded to females.  This number increased slightly from 2009–2010, where 62% of all associate degrees and 58% of all bachelor’s degrees were awarded to females. In addition, the amount of master’s degrees earned by females increased from 58% in 1999-2000 to 60% in 2009-2010. Doctor’s degrees saw the highest jump in the amount of degrees earned by females, with a 7% increase in degrees awarded from 1999-2000 to 2009-2010.

Minority females are also increasing their graduation rates and surpassing their male counterparts in the amount of degrees earned.  In the US, Black females earned 68% of associate’s degrees, 66 % of bachelor’s degrees, 71% of master’s degrees, and 65% of all doctor’s degrees awarded to all Black students. The same occurred with Hispanic females, who were awarded 62% of associate’s degrees, 61% of bachelor’s degrees, 64%  of master’s degrees, and 55% of all doctor’s degrees awarded to Hispanic students. Women of all races are enrolling and graduating at a faster pace than ever before.

However, there is still much more that can be done by women, especially in the field of science and technology. The American Association of University Women (AAUW) published a report entitled “Why So Few? Women in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics” in order to address why women in STEM program don’t often complete them. Less than 25 percent of STEM jobs are held by women, and in college programs, the amount of females in STEM fields is extremely small, especially in the engineering field.  Research points to a lack of female role models, gender stereotyping, and less family-friendly flexibility in the STEM fields as potential factors.

Overall, women of all races have made great strides in achieving their college education and in surpassing males in the number of degrees achieved in certain areas. The new challenge comes in continuing to increase those numbers and in spreading female enrollment to areas that are traditionally male-dominated.

CRN is Launching a New Blog!

CRN

We are very excited to announce that today the College Resource Network will start a new blog! We look forward to contributing to the topics of higher education and minorities in college. We hope to bring a distinctive perspective to issues being faced by minority students and to also continue to disseminate information on thousands of scholarship opportunities to everyone.

 

CRN

What is the College Resource Network (CRN)?
First, let’s get the introductions out of the way. We aren’t popular like Justin Bieber, so we recognize that you may not have heard of us before. We are a premier scholarship search engine and college planning website, focusing on (but not limited to) minorities.We have over $600,000,000 (yes, that’s over half a billion dollars!) available through 3,000+ scholarships. Every single scholarship featured on CRN is hand-picked and verified for you. We don’t pull our content from search engines and outdated scholarship engines, and we pride ourselves in highlighting unique scholarships that aren’t featured anywhere else.

 

What can you expect from our blog?

We hope to make this blog as informative and entertaining as possible and to post here 4-5 times a week. Every week, we will focus on a theme and all articles, scholarships, and posts will be related to that theme.

Women's History Month
March is Women’s History Month, so CRN’s first focus will be women’s issues

As March is Women’s History Month, our first focus will be honoring women in higher education and providing information that may be useful to college women. We will feature articles on women in higher education, fun facts, and several scholarships exclusively for women. Make sure you tell the ladies in your life!

 

 

Please follow us on Twitter and Facebook, and feel free to leave us a comment below. If you have any feedback or would like to submit a guest blog, please email us at any time. We look forward to connecting with you!

About the Blogger

Ana Folhadella
Ana Folhadella
Ana Folhadella, CRN’s main Blogger and Social Media Manager

First and foremost – Welcome to the College Resource Network (CRN)! We’re happy that one way or another you found this website and hope it has been useful in your transition from high school to college or in financing your higher education.

You may be wondering, who is this (natural!) red-headed girl atop all of CRN’S blog posts?? Well, that would be me! My name is Ana Folhadella and I’m a Brazilian-born Michigan resident. As of this blog writing, I’m a graduate student pursuing a Masters of Public Administration (MPA) at Oakland University. I have a a Bachelors in International Studies (with concentrations in Politics and Spanish) from the University of Michigan, as well as a Minor in Criminal Justice. I have had three scholarships throughout my undergraduate years, but also had to take out loans to pay for college. Luckily I’ve been able to pay out-of-pocket for my Masters without getting a loan. That’s why I’m very interested in scholarships and opportunities to help others offset the gigantic cost of college.

I’ve been with the College Resource Network as their Social Media Manager since December 17th 2012, and it’s been a wonderful experience spreading the word about this great resource. I feel very lucky to work with CRN on this internship opportunity because as a woman and a minority,  I don’t think there aren’t very many websites that can give us scholarship information that is trustworthy, reliable, and applicable to our unique situation. In addition to all the scholarships available, there are also great informational sections on transitioning from high school to college that I wish I had known before enrolling in an university.

We’re excited to launch this blog and focus on a unique feature each week. There are many more changes and new scholarships in stock for 2013 at CRN, so we hope you will stick around for the ride!