For the past 20 years, the Australian higher education student population has been dominated by women who have increased their numerical superiority over males year by year until now they comprise nearly 58% of the total student body. A mere four of the 12 fields of university study now enrol more men than women and that could soon be reduced to two, leaving engineering and IT the only places on campus where males are in the majority.

As is the case across most of the developed world, women have long held top spot in the 'typically female' professions of education and health (where three out of four Australian students are women), food and hospitality, the arts and humanities, and creative arts (where almost two in every three are female).

But for most of this decade, women have also outnumbered their male counterparts who used to occupy most seats in the physical sciences lecture rooms and in agriculture and environmental sciences. Not any longer: in the natural and physical sciences, women comprise 54% of the students and in the other field they make up just over half.

In management and commerce, women are closing the gender divide with almost 49% of enrolments although they lag behind in architecture (40:60%).

Even among postgraduates undertaking higher degrees by research, 54% of the students are women while in the other postgraduate courses they hold a substantial 57% lead over the males.

Across the entire Australian university sector, the difference in the representation of the two sexes is stark: of the 1.03 million local and overseas students on campus, more than 566,000 are women who outnumber the males by more than 100,000. The difference, however, is moderated by the fact more overseas students are male.

As previous reports in University World News have noted, a key factor in the rise of women on campus appears to be marked differences between the aspirations of the two sexes. Successive studies have shown that no matter if a family is wealthy or poor, well educated or illiterate, many more of their female offspring hope to go to university than the males - and they do.

Although the tendency for girls to aim higher than boys applies across the social classes, it is no surprise that a far greater proportion of youngsters from professional homes enrol in higher education. Yet even when family income and class are accounted for, female participation is 50% to 60% greater than that for males.

A few years ago, a federal Education Department survey of 7,000 students in years 10-12 across three states revealed that, compared with girls, the young males exhibited "less commitment towards school and were less likely to see higher education as relevant or attainable".

"Females tend to experience a far more supportive interpersonal environment," a report of the survey noted. "They are more likely than males to believe most of their friends will go to university and also more likely to believe their teachers are encouraging them to aim for university."

Another factor could be the tendency for teenage boys to seek employment in the trade areas and they go on to vocational education and training colleges rather than aiming for university.

The decline in the proportion of males on campus, however, has attracted little recent debate in Australia. Former conservative Education Minister Brendan Nelson expressed concern at the poor performance of boys in school compared with the girls and initiated programmes aimed at boosting their numbers in the final years of school - and attracting more males into teaching.

That was five years ago and the situation does not appear to be markedly different today. Certainly neither the present Labor government nor its Education Minister Julia Gillard has shown little interest in the subject or expressed concern about what the lack of better educated males might mean for the future.

* A report released last week noted that despite the participation of women in science at undergraduate and postgraduate levels, retention of women at senior levels in science and technology remained poor.

Women in Science in Australia: Maximising productivity, diversity and innovation was prepared by Professor Sharon Bell. Her research found that "persistent structural barriers existed for women in senior positions in science and technology".

The report said:

* Female scientists were clustered at the lower levels of responsibility, even in disciplines where they were well represented, such as biological sciences.
* In nearly every category, female professional scientists were earning less than their male counterparts.
* Significant numbers of women continued to report discrimination and harassment.
* Women have lower levels of recognition in measures of scientific excellence or esteem.
Bell said it was time for a renewed focus on women in science and technology.

geoff.maslen@uw-news.com

Printable version
Email to a friend
Comment on this article

Disclaimer: All reader responses posted on this site are those of the reader ONLY and NOT those of University World News or Higher Education Web Publishing, their associated trademarks, websites and services. University World News or Higher Education Web Publishing does not necessarily endorse, support, sanction, encourage, verify or agree with any comments, opinions or statements or other content provided by readers.