Went and dug a little deeper and it seems that for high-income nations, this trend of more women than men graduating in universities (as well as outperforming in school) has been going on for multiple decades now.
Apart of me wants to think its just right-wing hysteria because this was brought to my attention by some random podcast clip using this example as somehow proof that patriarchy doesn’t exist lol. Some articles I read did mention how other factors (particularly class and race) was a higher determinant of school/university success.
And I particularly do not like biological explanations anyways (too essentialist to my taste, but I can’t say for sure). I forgot which article in particular but it did argue it’s because men used to be able find jobs in more traditional blue-collar industries, leading to this present day discrepancy.
What do you all think?
My response mainly pertains to your PS because it made me think about the role of pedagogy in different socieites but like in the other thread, I do agree that cultural values instilled on boys in particular plays a heavy part in how they treat school.
That’s interesting. Maybe because of my background, where my parents were born and raised in rural villages, and were able to climb up the social ladder because of university in the west, made it seem that university was non-optional. (That is to say I lived a completely comfortable life because of this). My grandparents never even graduated high school, only reaching the equivalent of key stage 2 or 3 in British terms.
I could also see it as being a much more wider implication. There’s this stereotype that people in the global south love education and those in the West hate it. I have definitely not read enough nor have any data proving this but it does make me wonder if there is some merit to this assertion.
In my home country, the government is very adamant in expanding university education. And unlike in the anglo West, although still needs to be paid, university isn’t as much of a money furnace. With talks of brain drain, and the like, it’d make sense that one of the key infrastructural issues plaguing development in the global south is, well, skill development and education.
Maybe in the West where they can rely on aforementioned brain drain, and the harsh realities of the job market meant that university has indeed fallen from prestige. It certainly does fit with the capitalist individualist motto that anyone can achieve their dreams if they work hard enough.
And also thanks for the fiction book recommendation. I really do need to expand my reading list from just nonfiction books lol.
There’s definitely some racist stereotypes in the West about that North / South divide over education.
I think I got those mixed messages because I’m from a blue collar background. There’s a bit of… something… that manifests as anti-intellectualism in the blue collar world. It’s a kind of, ‘they’re not better than us just because they’re educated, and we’ll prove it’. So it can feel like you’re betraying your blue collar heritage by going to university.
I think you’ve identified another factor involved, as well. Roth’s Educated Underclass touches on this: a higher education is no guarantee of a good job or a good life. I can’t remember the exact stats from the book, but it’s something like – the child of working class, low income parents must study to Masters level to expect the same ‘outcomes’ as the child of a higher income parents (I can’t remember the income threshold for the parents) who only just passes their school exams at 16.
The real numbers may be slightly different, but the point is there’s a huge class disparity. Maybe boys in the West see more of the world than they’re given credit for, and just think (or their families / friends think), ‘nope, what’s the point’. That doesn’t explain the global trend of boys’ under performance. But it may explain negative attitudes to education in the West. I’m the global south, maybe there’s still(?) a good chance of getting a good job through education?