For more than two centuries, women have struggled to close the gender gap in higher education. Now enrollment figures at colleges and universities nationwide suggest it’s men’s turn to play catch up.

Recent data indicating that females now outnumber males in most universities around the country have some education experts concerned that not enough is being done to encourage young men to go to college.

Nationally, 57 percent of college students are women, according to the National Center for Education Statistics’ fall 2004 report. If the pattern continues, women are expected to constitute 61 percent of college students by 2009.

This trend is mirrored to a lesser extent in Oregon, although men still outnumber women at Oregon State University.

While educators applaud the headway women have made in higher education, they’re concerned about what effect not going to college will have on the intellectual development and future earning power of today’s young men, and the economic growth of the country.

In fall 2005, 80,888 undergraduate, graduate and non-degree seeking students were enrolled in Oregon’s seven public universities and one branch campus. Of these, 46.5 percent were male, and 53.3 percent were female, according to the Oregon University System’s Institutional Research Division.

At several public universities in Oregon, the gender gap was even wider than the national average. For example, of the undergraduates enrolled at OSU’s Cascades branch campus in fall 2004, 67.8 percent were women.

In fall 2005, OSU’s undergraduate student body was 52.8 percent men and 47.2 percent women. Among the graduate student population, enrollment was 50.3 percent men and 49.7 percent women.

However, in programs such as pharmacy and veterinary medicine, women dominated, accounting for 68.6 percent of students.

Although women still lag behind men in total enrollment at OSU, the gender gap is shrinking. Looking back to fall 1988, women accounted for just 42.8 percent of undergraduate and 24.6 percent of graduate students.

In fall of 1975, women made up 38 percent of the total student body.

“My sense is this is one of the places women have made real gains, in graduate school. That’s where the numbers are most dramatically different,” said Rebecca Sanderson, OSU interim director of institutional research.

OSU doesn’t show the same gender ratio as the majority of American universities, a fact Sanderson attributes to OSU’s emphasis on engineering, forestry, animal sciences, agriculture and other typically male-dominated fields.

Kelsey Edwardsen, a senior majoring in civil engineering at OSU, is accustomed to being one of the few females in her classes.

In a civil engineering course with 100 students, only 12 to 15 will be women, Edwardsen said, adding that females are even more under-represented in mechanical engineering, construction engineering management and nuclear engineering.

Social expectations usually lead men to take the helm during collaborative assignments in her engineering classes, according to Edwardsen.

“Generally, the males take the leadership roles, which is fine. I guess they’re geared more toward management. For a female, our qualifications are equal, but it can be hard to take a leadership role in group projects,” she said.

Edwardsen has had internships with construction companies in the past, and she said it “takes a thick skin” to be a woman supervising a construction site.

“A female has to be quite aggressive,” she said.

Edwardsen believes women are making headway in engineering in terms of numbers, and that many companies in the industry are working hard to recruit females.

“There’s a lot more equality in who’s asking the questions during lecture, and who’s taking the more active roles in civil engineering groups on campus,” she added.

This year, a fairly equal number of males and females from OSU participated in the American Society of Civil Engineers’ steel bridge design contest, whereas videotapes from 10 years ago showed male-only teams at the competition.

Veterinary medicine and pharmacy used to attract predominately male students, and now the trend has reversed. It will take time for women to catch up in engineering and other traditionally male majors, Sanderson noted.

Sanderson believes it is good that women are attending college more, and that it creates a more diverse campus climate. However, she worries that nationally fewer men are pursuing higher education than in previous years.

“What are young men doing if they’re not going to college? What does that do for the economy and their future earning power?” she said.

Mike Powers, a junior majoring in business, suspects more men than women may choose to enter the workforce directly out of high school because they are more able to earn a decent salary working in blue-collar jobs such as construction, plumbing and mechanics.

In his business classes, Powers sees a pretty even ratio of males to females.

“I’ve always felt it’s so beneficial to have an equal representation because you get a variety of viewpoints,” he said. Powers finds having diverse perspectives especially useful in group projects. He also believes that having a fairly gender-equal classroom prevents either sex from feeling overwhelmed or intimidated.

Crescent Valley High School does follow-up interviews with all of its graduates. Last fall, the school’s counseling office attempted to contact all 272 of the 2005 graduates.

Two-hundred and twenty-two of the students went on to college directly after graduating from CV. Of the remaining 50 students, 17 could not be reached.

Of the 184 CV graduates from 2005 currently in a four-year college or university, 51 percent are female, and 49 percent are male. Of the 38 attending community college, 42 percent are female, and 58 percent are male.

Similar trend at LBCC

At Linn-Benton Community College, women are an increasingly visible part of the student body.

In the 2000-01 school year, women accounted for 56.2 percent of the student population. Last year, this number rose to 58 percent.

Bruce Clemetsen, LBCC associate dean for enrollment, said more men are eschewing higher education in favor of starting work or families after high school. This may be due in part to finances and the learning style and interests of men, Clemetsen said.

Clemetsen believes colleges need to focus more attention on recruiting young men.

“We’ve been successful in doing a really good job of convincing women that school is where they belong, and that it’s a good investment. Some are concerned that there is no message to men. The assumption has always been that men go to college. We need to find a message that convinces them to make an educational investment,” Clemetsen said.