Beginning around the 1970s, education became more of a necessity because of the competition to be more qualified for a job. Around this time, men were distinguished as the superior gender considering that women were seen to be housewives and take care of the house instead of pursuing an education. After women favored laws being passed and statistics being broken by women, women pursuing a prominent education became more common. Now in the 2000s, it seems like that tide has changed. Females are now surpassing males in almost all academic aspects. Statistics show that women are more likely to graduate high school, have the necessary preparations for college, have high standardized test scores and school grades. According to the National Center of Education Statistics, females made up more than half of the associate’s and bachelor’s degrees earned in 2013-14. Subjects, such as math and science that were male dominated, are being succumbed by females in secondary education and college. With females excelling at such a rate, what does this mean for the education of boys? Being that females are excelling, males haven’t completely fallen behind girls. The problem is why haven’t society paid more attention to this educational gender gap and what can be done to help boys succeed?

 From primary to college, education plays an important part in structuring the world for years to come. Getting through to people across to the world is one of the problems with being the conversation of the education gender gap to attention. Most of the reason being that society doesn’t think that there is a “gender gap.”. All the controversy that happens in the world besides this, would make this seem like a tedious thing. On the other hand, you have people that don’t know that boys are falling behind or others that praise the fact that females are excelling and revert attention from the success of both genders. Melissa Benn of The Guardian suggest that society focus on helping the already advancing females rather than males that are failing. Another disagreement with the gender gap is that people feel if it’s not directly affecting them then it’s not a problem. According to Cordelia Fine, society is sometimes oblivious to things like the gender gap because they seem to believe everything is based on anything scientifically proven (Fine, 209). Getting people to focus and fully engage their attention towards the educational gender gap, I predict would make them actively seek ways to close the gap.

Education is an important factor in navigating through the job labor world. Having a sufficient education is becoming a normal thing therefore making the competition for a great job even harder. Jobs are requiring having a bachelors’ degree to get an entry level job paying enough to make ends meet in households. I believe strongly that everyone should have not only an equal education but the same resources to exceed despite gender or background. Dispersing the gender gap in education with getting both genders on the same page is a something I consider a necessity. Being that I am a college student and not an educator, I know first hand how much it means to have the capacity to obtain a new outlook on your career by having the knowledge from higher learning. Closing the gender gap in education can create more jobs and show that we as people are about not only the progression of females but the progression of both genders.

As stated previously, from the beginning men had always been looked at as the superior race. Men were looked upon as the financial means for the family; they were raised to immediately get a job to take care of their households and families. Women on the other hand, were raised to be housewives, meaning staying home to take of their children and cook, clean etc. Therefore, most women were forced to be married young because they weren’t allowed to get a job to support them, that’s what they’re husband was for. Before laws were passed and women taking control over their lives, it was socially incorrect for a woman to pursue a career, more uncommon for them to pursue a higher education like men were. This is the first gender gap in education because of the certain circumstances that women faced. All of this changed after the late 1970s when having a greater education became more of a necessity to have in terms of getting a high paying job. Having a bachelor’s degree or associate’s degree was starting to become required to get a certain job. After movements like the anti-suffrage, women getting the right to vote and women breaking the historical norm, the tide towards with men being superior over women in education began to change. 

With women having the right to pursue an education, the power of knowledge was an indefinite prize for women. Society, I believe, became more intrigued with women pursuing higher education and put in place programs to help girls. Being that I am a female, I know how persistent we can be when we have our sights on something. The most important motivation for women getting the right to an education was to prove themselves to men and making it known that they’re not just good at being housewives. Another motivation for women having a higher education was politics; women needed a voice in the laws that affected them, being that they were decided by men all before. This is where the modern day educational gender gap became about. Women had come so far in education to where they weren’t only excelling tremendously but exceeding men in education. Based on research and statistics, women are looked at to graduate at a higher rate than men and there has been debates about women being the superior race. In terms of education, the gender gap became more divided leaving boys behind and girls on top.

It is clear that education is more obtainable in terms of rate of graduation from high school and college or higher test scores than before, there is an assumption that both genders are where they need to be. Females are more compelled to work harder to prove themselves because of the disadvantage from earlier decades. To counterargue this, they’re truly working harder but having programs and school systems helping them out instead of boys plays a role, also. According to author Christina Hoff Sommers, School systems favoring girls and not both genders contribute to the growing lack of knowledge that boys are able to get in classrooms. On a home front, parents believe that boys don’t need as much as attention or help as girls do, meaning that boys are left to learn on their own with little understanding. Both genders excelling in all aspects of education rather than just one gender is the important goal. 

Education is the most important factor in fixing the gender gap in education. Supporting both genders mentally and emotionally is another factor in the educational gender gap. Focusing on the long-term benefits of education is another issue doesn’t seem to come to terms with the gender gap in education. One of those long- term benefits being how much the economic status of countries could skyrocket. Instead of focusing on the benefits of having both genders succeed beyond statistics, most individuals focus more on the progression on one gender which explains why there is this gender gap in education in the first place. The big picture is to get rid of the gender gap, society must analyze the benefits of dispersing this gender gap. 

One benefit of having an equal education for both genders is that children are the future of the world. With children being the future, generations to come are going to be the representation in job fields. Doctors that are going to be there when this generation gets older is going to be the same kids in schools now. Based on Tindall’s and Burnette’s article, children are not being encouraged to pursue different careers out the typical male or female jobs (Tindall, 282). For example, there are female engineers but there aren’t as many females as there is males. Another case would be teachers, there aren’t as many male teachers that there are female. In the YouTube video “Closing the Gender Gap”, Kevin Kelly of Heidrick and Struggles states that companies with more diversity having higher profit levels. Having children be successful at different jobs out their fields could bring more jobs and make breakthroughs such as cures for untreatable diseases. 

Children who have the knowledge to read, write etc. create a better future for their families and in a bigger sense, their countries. Providing males and females with equal educational opportunities will improve the world especially in an economic sense. This improved education can increase the incomes that come into household. According to the Global Partnership for Education, 420 million people would be lifted out of poverty with a secondary education, thus reducing the number of poor worldwide by more than half. Education is a vital element in the improving the economic status of the world. The more children pursing higher equal education can better the economy is directly making the pursuit of a higher education cheaper.

The health benefits of education are things not talked about usually when education is the topic. Education that, for some is inaccessible and not equal, has too many vital health benefits to not be important. Previously stating about the benefits of education can do to poverty, more than half of the world not living in poverty helps the health of those individuals too. More individuals that aren’t living in poverty anymore can have access to health resources that they didn’t before. Education can give you the knowledge of what’s healthy and unhealthy for your existence. Based on me gaining knowledge from college courses, I learned about things that I thought were healthy but that are in fact damaging to my health. According USA Today: College, people pursing a higher education outlives those who do not. Giving both genders that equal education can motivate them to more fulfilling lives, growing up to be happier individuals with healthier lives.

Just like there are many benefits of having an education and dispersing the gender gap there are some downsides to this too. One of these downsides being the preparation for life through education.  In older times, the prominent goal of primary and secondary education was to prepare children with essentials needed in life and giving knowledge that is needed to pursue careers. According to Marcus Goncalves, today’s version of the goal of education has transformed into training and proficiency. Curriculums in education now doesn’t match the approach children have about their work. Using myself as example, throughout schooling I thought that if it wasn’t going to help in my career or cannot be applied to life then I don’t need it.  This downside could be an indirect correlation to the reason there is a gender gap in education also. 

Another downside of education is some use this as a means to discriminate against others. There have been cases where someone uses their knowledge to belittle a less educated person. This goes all the way to the work force because employers will use their advantages of being educated to not hire or treat an employee badly because they didn’t have the same educational opportunities they were able to acquire. This is another reason why it is important to disperse this gender gap so this wouldn’t be a downside of having an education. 

Though the backstory, benefits and the downsides of the importance education pertaining to the gender gap has been addressed, solutions to this issue hasn’t been discussed considering that disbanding this issue could help the well-being of the world. Society should pay more attention to this gender gap because if they don’t there could be consequences. One consequence society could be facing is the lack of diversity within in jobs. Another huge consequence, society could face is the decreasing in the funds that goes towards funding primary, secondary, and higher education. This resulting from in the decline in boys graduating based on the statistic that girls graduate at a higher rate. Also, decreasing funding from colleges and universities could make the cost of tuition rise dramatically. Lastly, not dispersing the gender gap could have boys not have the chance to be able to get a job because they are poorly educated. 

Solutions to fixing the gender gap in education starts at home first. How life is at home plays a big part in a child’s mental state of mind especially boys. Parental economic status, living in poor neighborhoods, parental employment/absence can all affect the way a child learns. According to Fan, Fang, and Markussen, children that grow up in married households are able to obtain more knowledge than those in working class single parent households. Though it is not up to the child, parents being more involved with boys pertaining to helping with homework and helping them concentrate better helps. Programs involving tutoring for underprivileged kids, poor children and/or kids with working parents could help parents that are not able to provide that for their children. In the article “” Bros Before Hos”: Guy Code”, Kimmel states “Boys feel the need to upkeep their masculine image and prove themselves to other men.” Fathers are more inclined to teach their boys sports rather than focus on schoolwork to maintain this masculine image. Switching this around and having fathers focus more on their son’s schoolwork could increase their capability to learn, helping disperse gender gap.

Although kids start learning at home first, school systems are a big part in what knowledge is obtained by kids. Christina Hoff Sommers and Sara Mead both state that putting programs in place for boys like school systems did for girls, boys can excel more than they are now. Teachers play a role in the way children learn but are seemed to be more biased towards females than males. Teachers need to look further into the way boys learn like incorporated things like sports, cars and other things that appeal to the common personality of boys in curriculum. Girls and boys learn differently based on social and personality factors. Usually teachers are mostly females and because of this they teach in the way they learn. This is beneficial to females but not males. Having a male teacher teach boys can help boys better understand the curriculum. On the opposite side, girls aren’t getting the same efficiency in the areas of math and sciences is suggested by Tindall and Hamil. Connecting with girls in these areas by using life examples and their personality helps females in getting ahead in math and sciences. There are different ways in which both genders learn in school but there needs to be more of a hands-on curriculum in all classes and not a teacher lecturing while students listen. Incorporating those curriculums helps students understand their work more and let teachers get more involved in how their students learn. 

After-school programs are usually helpful in getting children the help they need but it needs to on more programs and on a larger scale. There are after-school programs in most elementary schools and sometimes middle schools but there needs to be some helping in high school education too. From experience, the one on one attention could be vital and helpful to a high school student that’s struggling. A program idea that could help is one that is play-based activities that incorporate each class a student taking curriculum in the activities. There are more solutions to the gender gap in education but addressing the problems and making tedious adjustments can slowly but surely fix it. Having the equal opportunity to pursue an equal education can indefinitely fix the gender gap in education, improve the economic status of the world and better the living standards. Closing the gender gap in education can create more jobs and show that we as people care about not only the progression of females but the progression of both genders. 
