• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Top of the Class: Women Are Outpacing Men at South Florida Colleges, Enrolling at Higher Rates and Earning More Graduation Honors

Posted on: Friday, 28 April 2006, 06:00 CDT

By Noah Bierman, The Miami Herald

Apr. 28--As college graduation season begins this weekend, look for women at the front of the processions, raking in the academic honors.

Following a national trend, women are making up an ever-growing majority of the graduating classes in South Florida colleges and universities. And even more of those women are graduating at the top of the class.

"We can sacrifice a little bit more," said Adriana Campos-Serrano, a Florida International University senior from Pembroke Pines who will graduate with a 3.9 grade point average (GPA). "It's more like personal satisfaction, the grades, at least that's for me."

Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, which also serves Broward County, offers a striking example. Women will account for 64 percent of all graduates next week. But they'll make up 75 percent of those graduating with honors.

Experts, educators and female achievers offer several possible explanations for women's success in the classroom, all of which are arguable: They are more conscientious; they have something to prove; education is a greater economic benefit for women; they play the classroom game better.

The phenomenon has been studied extensively among primary and secondary school students, but less so at the college level. Regardless of their academic success, women still lag in pay once they graduate.

STEADIER, NOT SMARTER

Women "are not necessarily brighter," said Perri Lee Roberts, who directs the University of Miami's honors college and has seen women climbing for more than a decade. "They follow the rules, so they're generally better students. They're going to do what the professor asks them."

Women have been asserting their place in higher education for decades, according to U.S. Department of Education statistics. In 1979, they surpassed men in enrollment for the first time. In the 1980s, they began earning more degrees. Women now earn about 61 percent of associate degrees nationally and and 57 percent of bachelor's degrees. They earn 59 percent of masters degrees, 49 percent of professional degrees, and 48 percent of Ph.Ds.

The federal government does not track college students' grades. But, at least locally, the trend seems clear: Women are doing well, usually accounting for at least 60 percent of students at the top of their class, meaning they are beating men out even when accounting for their advantage in enrollments.

The higher the GPAs, the more the disparity grows, at least at three South Florida schools that were able to distinguish between honors and honors with distinctions: Miami Dade College, Broward Community College and FAU. For example, women at FAU will account for 79 percent of those graduating with highest distinction, summa cum laude, which requires a 3.9 GPA.

Sonya Cooper Friedman, 46, a retired police detective from Cooper City, will graduate from FAU summa cum laude with a master's degree in sociology next week, just as she did as an undergraduate in 2004. She said she is teaching her two daughters that they need a strong education to maintain the independence her generation won.

"I don't want them to think their future is going to depend on the right man taking care of them," said Friedman, who is married.

CHANGE WITH THE TIMES

Most experts dismiss genetic differences between the sexes, pointing out that girls' and boys' grades have fluctuated over time depending on social expectations.

"The general reason, people think, is that girls and women are more conscientious in doing their work," said Janet Hyde, a psychologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who has looked at the differences in high schools.

Nazlee Hameed will graduate from BCC next week with a 3.8 GPA and then attend the University of Florida. She is among seven female members of the eight-member board of the Phi Theta Kappa international honor society. She says she notices her male classmates are more likely to procrastinate on assignments.

"It's just a matter of keeping your priorities in line," she said. 'Throughout my life, it's always been: 'School is my No. 1 priority.' "

55 PERCENT PAY JUMP

Women may have a greater financial incentive than men. While higher education helps both sexes earn more money, it's almost essential for women.

Laura Perna, a higher education and public policy expert at the University of Pennsylvania, found women with a bachelor's degree earn 55 percent more than women who get only a high school diploma. For men, a bachelor's makes only a 17 percent difference in salary.

"People are making rational decisions about going to college," she said.

Perna hypothesizes that the education "premium" is greater for women than men because a college degree for a woman might make the difference between working at McDonald's and working at an office, whereas a man might be choosing between working in construction versus working at an office.

"This different premium," she said, "could be a motivating factor."

And it follows: Better grades mean more degrees.

MEN STILL PAID MORE

But at every level, men are earning more. Women earn about 77 cents on the dollar compared with men, census surveys in recent years have shown.

"We need more progress because the average salaries are still lower for women than for men," Perna said.

The wage gap grows as women move further from their college years, a factor many women attribute to the societal expectation that they have more responsibility at home. By then, grades in college aren't as pertinent to a resume.

Rosalind C. Barnett, a resident scholar at the Women's Studies Research Center at Brandeis University, is amused that the gender gap in secondary school is making so much news, with some education experts alarmed that boys are falling behind in lower grades. Boys got all the honors when she graduated high school in 1955 and "no one batted an eye."

"We all worked hard," she said. "But it was expected that boys would walk away with the honors."

So are girls more conscientious than boys?

"Who the heck knows if that's true?" she said. "If girls are conscientious now, they were then, too."

-----

Copyright (c) 2006, The Miami Herald

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

For information on republishing this content, contact us at (800) 661-2511 (U.S.), (213) 237-4914 (worldwide), fax (213) 237-6515, or e-mail reprints@krtinfo.com.

NYSE:MCD,

Source: The Miami Herald

More News in this Category