15th February 2013 9:00
By Blue Tutors
Over the past decade, equality between the sexes has been a topic of much consideration and deliberation. Since the suffragettes acquired the vote for women in the 1900s, the fairer sex has campaigned tirelessly for equality, particularly within the workplace with regards to jobs and wages. Yet one might consider this as having received a substantial boost through the huge change that has taken place in women’s education.
There are constant improvements for women throughout the world when it comes to education and healthcare, but men are still acquiring better jobs and wages. You might wonder how this happens; in schools, girls are achieving proportionally better grades than boys while at a number of UK universities female students outnumber male students by two to one. If education is clearly propounding the ability of women to achieve and even outstrip men in all aspects, why is this not recognised in the workplace?
In 2010-11, there were 10% more female than male undergraduates in full time education and this trend appears to have no sign of shrinking. Statistics released last year by the University and Colleges Admission Service (UCAS) indicated that there had been a 22,000 drop in the number of male students enrolling at university. Even though there are more young men and women in the UK, currently women are a third more likely to begin studying a degree at University than men.
It has taken years for women to be allowed to attend university, receive degrees and study the same subjects as men. But now it would seem that women are overtaking men in the system that they created. Will universities now need to create programmes to focus on getting more men into higher education? The world never ceases to amaze.