In 2017, 141 women to every 100 men earned college degrees. If men an women are equally intelligent, do women study more and are they more motivated?

Question

blueonblack22 · Accepted Answer

Well this is for all degrees and all degrees are not definitely not equal in value.

Men are more likely to go into more difficult subject matters like the STEM field and especially engineering. While those are much more challenging then a “psychology” degree they are also much more marketable.

I personally changed my major 4 times. First it was philosophy, then international business, then environmental engineering (which was insanely hard) and finally finance (which was still very hard but not as hard as engineering).

I ended up going into digital marketing for my career. Even though I used absolutely zero of what I learned with my finance my degree it did help me think analytically. I use a lot of data charts, excel, projections all the time. And my career definitely pays better then if I was a social worker (no offense to social workers) or something. Although hyperinflation has definitely taken a huge chunk out of it in the last few years but that’s another topic (f you Biden).

Anyway just because you get a degree it doesn’t really mean you got an education. It doesn’t mean you are necessarily “smart” either. You are studying subject matters and regurgitating information to pass tests. But does the subject matter have value that is in demand in the real world?

I have met several non college grads who are extremely smart and self educated in their fields. In fact I keep hearing more and more companies who care more about your real world experience in the field vs the college diploma (unless it’s in law).

I know my college didn’t teach me a damn thing about the career field I am in now. I know my company could absolutely care less about where I graduated from. They only care about my work experience and specialty skill sets related to my industry.

Anyway men are still making more then women in the real world because:

We go into more lucrative fields which most often require tough college degrees to get (STEM field)
We are more entrepreneurial and risk taking.
We are more likely to work overtime and care less about the “work life” balance. We naturally driven to make more money.

What I said above isn’t sexist it’s just the truth. Men have a natural drive to be more independent and to make more money because we know it’s expected of us by women and society.

WindAtMyBack · Accepted Answer

It just means men have a lot more alternatives. Women have FAR fewer options without a degree.

Plus, it's not like you have to be smart to go to college.

"If men an women are equally intelligent, do women study more and are they more motivated?"

Yes. Statistically, that would have to be the case.

SweetJoyGirl · Accepted Answer

A lot more men just go into blue collar jobs. It doesn’t mean they are less motivated. They just prefer to work with their hands.

I like a book nerds, so I am going I stick with my intellectual dudes. Uni is the best place to find them. 🤷🏾‍♀️

RavVid · Answer

There are quite a few interesting aspects around this. Certainly women are more motivated than men are to enroll in college because they are enrolling at an approx 60:40 split.

As for motivation I'd distinguish between intrinsic motivation and more general motivation. I have always been motivated in STEM subjects in their own right. Always will be. That's what I am labeling intrinsic. You need that, to be good in your chosen area; it's passion for it.

More general motivation might be GOTO College --> Follow Your Dream = Well Paying Job. That s becoming a broken dream if it is not already. It is certainly being pitched harder to women than to men. There could be more success in marketing that to women than to men, with men being more pragmatic. I think that could well be the case.

In my case I was more dreaming of being a research scientist but pragmatically chose engineering for better employment options. I never considered studying my other core interest of history. Had I not made the cut to do STEM, I would not have studied an arts degree.

Now that is just me but I would not be surprised if most men were generally similar whilst the courses chosen by women are softer easier courses.

The IQ bell curve is inexorable. If, as it seems, 60% of the females go to college that means that the IQ of the bottom tier of the females are 90-95. In contrast the bottom tier of men are 105.

This will have a significant effect on the course content taught with more women enrolled necessitating lower standards.

Most people react to the 60/40 split as being virtuous but it is quite possibly deluded.

Oncewildtwiceburned · Answer

Blue collar jobs make the lights stay on the water run the cows happy and the corn tall.

Student debt for bureaucratic desk jobs and HR jobs are not “essential”, surgeons and engineers are still majority men. Those are essential jobs. Men don’t study as much in high school this is true, but they often get roofing gigs in college and decide the student debt isn’t worth it when they see how much they can make learning a trade in a construction related field, like welding for instance or being a roughneck.

They also tend to inherit and run farms more often, or become firefighters/first responders. Intelligence and cool-headedness in dangerous situations shouldn’t be so quickly sneered at

TDDMS · Answer

As someone who who has been in academia for quite some time, those numbers are skewed. Firstly, for some 30 years now we've been lowering the bar for women and minority collegiate acceptance. Moreover we've lowered standards to keep women enrolled.

For instance, at the grad school I'm attending, I've seen the statistics and probability textbook we were first assigned is what one would expect in university. The following semester the textbook was changed where professional tone of the subject is replaced with "be my buddy" language. Also, there is no where near the content as in the original textbook. The current graduate level textbook is written for someone in 9th grade. And the change in this was to make it easy for women to stay in the graduate program.

SixFootSexy · Answer

Maybe men decided that college today isn't worth it, it wasn't for me and my career choice. Ironic, because I've taught a couple classes at a college level even though I never attended personally. It's easier to learn on your own, and a degree doesn't guarantee you a job like the Boomer generation. But it does guarantee that you can't default on your student loans, so there's that...

LiamJHayden · Answer

Which degrees? I would guess that four Ph. D.'s in Gender Studies might not be as valuable as a single M. S. in Chemical Engineering.

Also, there might be a different dynamic at play. I dropped out before my sophore year in college because I was already earning more with my business than a degree that I could attain would likely ever earn me. I've dated women who had B. A's who thought themselvces superior because I dropped out. Then we compared earnings. A bit harder to be snooty when your degree is earning you 20% or less of what the dropout earns.

ChiTown33 · Answer

No. I think it just confirms what we already knew. That men make up the majority of blue collar jobs. Why would you waste money getting a degree for a career that didn't require one.

This would be different if the population was skewed to one gender or the other but it isn't.

MysticDevice · Answer

Men on average choose labor over school.

Where I work I'm getting paid more than most graduates I meet. And the sad part is, I'm not even getting paid all that much. Skipped college entirely and went straight to work.

My only debt is a mortgage. So I'd call my decision a win.

gatixek710 · Answer

Our society has been catering to women's education at the detriment to men's education. For the past 40 years girls have been praised for wiping their asses while men are called "toxic". The school day is designed around how girls learn. The culture is full of "girl bosses" and bumbling stupid men.

MisterWack · Answer

Women are just as capable and have just as much potential as men, what I will say is there are more women than men so perhaps that affects the study. Also if men aren’t graduating from school / doing college why are they majority in the working world? I think it really depends and isn’t as straight forward as this chart proclaims.

beefcakebradybatson · Answer

Yes, they do, plus many males believe grade schools and high schools female-oriented, from the teachers (about 95% women) to the administration (still largely male but which more and more caters to females) to the teaching methods to even curricula which is said to be slanted towards women, though I haven't read any grade school or high school text books for years.

KostasKouvalis · Answer

From my personal observations, with women it seems more like if they're doing school, they're doing school. While men are always choosing to do school and work at the same time, and partying too.

Surely · Answer

There seems to be less well paying blue collar jobs for women than men. I know women that have a degree in something that doesn’t even come close to what they are working after graduation.
I would agree that women may spend more time studying than partying. But I can’t speak from experience. Since I never went to a college full time.

exitseven · Answer

I am surprised at the disparity. Maybe because men have opportunities outside of jobs that require a college degree that women do not have

HighValue · Answer

1. There are 10 women for every 9 men in the USA population.  2. There is more exclusive FREE money for women to go to college.  3. Most of the useless degrees are earned by women.

andreasderjuengere · Answer

How many of those (both genders) will continue in their specialization, will have some kind of career, and will have a useful life? A ''degree'' is worth nothing, when it's leading nowhere.

jahaims · Answer

Do you not understand males do a vast majority of manual labor?

paledreams · Answer

Women have more time or they want more money to earn - or they're thinking with their brains, men however

PeterLegg91 · Answer

They probably concentrate better than us men In lessons

Walksbehindtherows · Answer

Women are not as smart as men, they are just more hardworking. Women have never contributed to humanity throughout history.

msc545 · Answer

No, the women get supported by men. The men support themselves or women or both.

RedInnocent69 · Answer

Yes. Women are more intelligent, in some ways.

In 2017, 141 women to every 100 men earned college degrees. If men an women are equally intelligent, do women study more and are they more motivated?

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