Page 12 •Thursday, November 10, 2005 THE Gender gap widens o Sarah Moser and Amy Parker Special Projects Editors Next time you are walking through campus take a look around you. Besides the beautiful scenery notice the peo ple around you. It’s pretty evident that Elon has more women than men. In fact, the ratio is 61 percent women to 39 percent men. Classrooms are dominated by women, there are more sororities than fraternities and there is one more all-female dorm compared to the lone Smith dormitory. What about outside the bubble, are there more women than men in other universities? Colleges and universities around the United States are seeing more and more females on their campus. In fact the gender gap has widened in recent years with 43 percent of college students being male and 57 percent being female, according to USA Today. This is a dramatic reversal from the 1960s and 70s when men dominated the college scene. According to NPR, the gender gap in higher education overall is widening in favor of women. Colleges gave out 200,000 more degrees to women than to men in spring 2005. Women now make up 57 percent of the college pop ulation and it is continuing to rise. Within ten years, three million more women than men could be attending college. 6 4 FEMALE COLLEGE STUP^ RECEIVE HIGHER MALE STUDENTS In the past, male students were the majonty they were the traditional breadwinners oft There are several reasons researchers gi^® jS _ HI mental needs of boys are not being met in as ^ ^ shy away from being excited about they do not want to seem uncool. Also m ing more females to attend college. jn Girls began to seek career paths and enro ^ 1970s. By the mid-1980s, more women ^ There was also an unexpected drop in not know why, but they have their According to the National Center for ' er numbers than girls. Another point is t ® jn other areas in which a degree isn’t Universities are trying to come up wit ^ At in Pennsylvania the admissions team a to last year. However, their ratio still breaks applicants affirmative action. For put^' lid' the male will get in. Some schools are school to give them a better chance. hou' But even with all these exceptions, g( when applying to school. Universities ^ ^ Qti I 1 MnnV SCnO^^ . h»' an equal balance on campus. Many iJo*, more males, but they must be careful- university had an affirmative-action p® ^