generation of education

There has been a drastic change in the value of education since boomers were young adults. Beginning in the 1970’s we see a steady increase in the number of young people who obtained a college degree and a corresponding decline in the number of people who dropped out of school without even a high school education. This is particularly true in the case of women where the change is most pronounced. For example the number of women who dropped out of high school in the seventies was thirty-four percent whereas by 2010, the number had dropped down to eleven percent. Similarly, there was an increase of almost 250% in the number of women graduating college by 2010. In 1970 11% of women had college degrees and in 2010 the number rose to 36%.

Figure 1

The change in the economic role of women is important, because in the seventies men were the primary breadwinners, and now both men and women must work for a family to survive. This means that women, in order to support a family, and a certain standard of living, must get a more education. The seventies introduced human rights, gender equality, and a lot of other good stuff. This improvement in equality lead to more and more woman becoming more competitive as they strove to become equals and to be able to compete for some of the better jobs in the labour force. For example in 1970, 3.5 million woman enrolled in college as compared with 12 million in 2010. This huge increase of almost 350% totally eclipses the growth of male enrollement for the same period. In comparison from the 1970’s to 2010, male college enrolement increased only from five million to nine million, which is an increase of less than 100% for men. Women now dominate the college arena while men lag behind. In fact, the National Center for Education Statistics project that by 2019 there will be three women for every two men enrolled in a college.

Figure 2