There Is No "Boy Crisis"

By Kim Gandy

This article originally appeared as an op-ed in USA Today on 10/12/06.

The so-called boy crisis has received more than its fair share of media attention this year. Those fueling the fire claim that boys are falling perilously behind girls academically, and that the percentage of young men enrolled in college has dropped frighteningly low.

First, let's put the "crisis" in perspective. At the risk of sounding unimaginative, we should start with the facts: The most reliable data do not support the theory that boys are failing at school.

In most age groups, boys' achievement has risen since the early 1970s. Older boys have shown a slight decline of late, but then so have older girls. And male college attendance has increased — it's just that women's attendance has grown even faster. A recent Education Sector publication said, "The real story is not bad news about boys doing worse; it's good news about girls doing better."

It's true that more women than men are enrolled in four-year colleges, but they're still outnumbered at Ivy League schools. And because the average woman with a bachelor's degree makes about the same as a man with only a little college, the degree starts to look like an economic necessity for women.

Second, take a look around. Are we in danger of women taking over? Only a handful of women are Fortune 500 CEOs. Of 535 members of Congress, just 84 are women. Women working full-time make only 77 cents to a man's dollar. When NOW was founded in 1966, it was 58 cents. Forty years later, we have closed the wage gap by less than half.

With odds like these, it's no wonder more women are earning degrees. After all, education is about building skills, developing knowledge and gaining credentials that allow you to compete in the working world — a world still dominated by men.

Finally, part of the boy-crisis alarm is about competition, and about women's changing roles in our society. Too many men have a problem seeing women as equals, and would just as soon not have to compete. We see this in employment discrimination, sexual harassment, rape, and all forms of violence against women.

One proposed solution has been to segregate boys from girls in school, but not only does that fail to improve performance, it also sends a message that it is difficult for the sexes to work and learn together, and that the best remedy is to give up trying. If we want women and men to compete on a level playing field as adults, they must start in school.