Women racing ahead in higher education

A new study shows women heavily outnumber men at universities.

Thirty per cent more young women than men enrolled for bachelor degrees in 2004 and 40 per cent more women than men were enrolled for post-graduate degrees, Dr Paul Callister and co-authors James Newell, Dr Martin Perry and David Scott say in an upcoming paper.

Dr Callister is with the Institute of Policy Studies at Victoria University.

Law and medicine were just two of the traditional male preserves now dominated by women, the Sunday Star-Times newspaper reported today.

In 1978, men made up 70 per cent of medical graduates from Otago's medical school. Last year, that had nearly halved to 39 per cent of medical graduates.

Dr Callister said the trend was not about boys failing. The trend appeared in 1998 and had been strengthening since then.

"What is happening is that girls have really raced ahead and the men are not keeping up."

He said the emergence of a new generation of women more qualified than their male peers could affect everything from decisions on marriage, to pay rates to working hours.

- NZPA