Please mind the gender gap

Last month it was revealed that women are now a third more likely to apply to university than men. One of the main reasons for this is that women are grossly outperforming their male counterparts at both GCSE and A-Level. The number of female applicants rose by almost 2,000, whereas male applicant numbers plummeted by nearly five and a half thousand.

The gravity of these figures even led Professor Alan Smithers, director of the Centre for Education and Employment at Buckingham University, to comment, “universities should now admit men on lower grades – although I suppose at the moment that could be illegal.”

Warwick prides itself on gender equality. According to the Complete University Guide, the make-up of our student population this year is 51 percent to 49 percent in favour of the men. This is an increase in women students in the 2010-11 academic year, when the percentage stood at 47.61 percent. Even though this latter percentage still seems fair, it was actually the third-lowest percentage of female students at Russell Group universities.

It is important not to criticise Warwick just yet, given that these numbers predate the news given by UCAS in January. While many may simply say that Warwick’s nigh-50/50 ratio is balanced and just, the question is: how fair is too fair? In other words, shouldn’t we expect to see more female students in October? If so, then a potentially detrimental gender gap may be created. If not, then our student demographics would appear to be at odds with the statistics in order to maintain the appearance of gender fairness. In other words, it’s a lose-lose situation, whereby equality and inequality are inextricably and paradoxically entwined.

“Universities should now admit men on lower grades – although I suppose at the moment that could be illegal.” Professor Alan Smithers

But considering social ‘consequences’ of a female-dominated Warwick in, say, three or four years’ time is absurd. To wonder whether there will be implications within Warwick gives the impression that more female students pose detrimental effects. Universities and their students are proponents of equality, so in order to enforce the notion of gender fairness, it should not matter whether there are more or less students of either sex.

Questioning social effects upon the dynamic of Warwick further separates men and women, as though students of different sexes bring with them different penalties. Although Warwick plays part in this topic as a university, it is important to separate it as an educational institution and as a social community when the question of a potential gender gap arises.

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Header Image courtesy and derived from flickr.com/paulbence and WikiCommons