Gender Gap Not Represented in Student Population

By Matthew Rupel

A recent study by the Pew Research Center shows that approximately 55 percent women and 45 percent men attend college.

The gender divisions among Santa Clara applicants reflect a similar trend. Last year, 27 percent more women applied to Santa Clara than men, but the enrolled class is almost exactly split at 50/50.

Administrators from colleges around the nation have admitted to "affirmative action" for men. In one case, Jennifer Britz, the former dean of admissions at Kenyon College, wrote an editorial in which she admitted to accepting male applicants with much lower test scores than female applicants.

Dean of Undergraduate Admissions at Sandra Hayes admitted that the overrepresentation of women in college can be challenging when trying to build a diverse class, but that Santa Clara does not let in unqualified students to bolster numbers.

"Yes, we always want more men. But if I've got a man who I believe is not academically prepared for Santa Clara, I don't care that he is a man. I wouldn't sacrifice that piece for the gender equity," said Hayes.

Since 2006, Santa Clara has seen a substantial increase in female applicants — 2,599 more. But the number of female students who enrolled dropped by 91.

Hayes said that Santa Clara has "not yet been in that position where (the school) really has had to be intentional about getting that balance."

Santa Clara tends to get a lot of strong male applicants, said Hayes. One reason for this could be a number of all-male Jesuit high schools that act as feeders for Santa Clara.

"Bellarmine is the obvious example because it's right down the street. We have a hundred plus applicants from Bellarmine every year," said Hayes. "It's not like we admit every guy that applies from Bellarmine. But the vast majority, there's really no reason why we should not admit them."

The difference could be attributed to the university's commitment to providing a well rounded student body. Santa Clara's mission statement even has a section for the commitment to community and diversity, which reads that the university "cherish(es) (its) diverse and inclusive community of students, faculty, staff, administrators and alumni, a community that is enriched by people of different backgrounds, respectful of the dignity of all its members, enlivened by open communication, and caring and just toward others."

Political Science Professor Diana Morlang said that she likes having an even gender proportion in the classroom. "I think my style in class is very conversational, so I think it shouldn't be very intimidating to one group or the another," she said.

In the fall of 2010 (more current numbers were unavailable), the School of Arts and Sciences was made up of 62.4 percent women, representing 66.2 percent of the total female student body, while only 27.7 percent of the School of Engineering was made up of women, representing less than 9 percent of female students.

Even in these schools, men and women sometimes tend to self-select into particular majors. This self-selection process means that some areas of study are more heavily weighed towards one gender or the other.

Santa Clara is focusing on the separations of gender in education by increasing efforts to bring diversity in certain programs, such as taking students to conferences and banquets that support women in professional programs. The university has seen an increase in women participating in computing related majors by 31 percent in two years, according to a recent press release from the university.

The engineering department offers a number of programs that recruit and retain women in the computer sciences. Santa Clara is also part of a program that is committed to increasing the number of women in technical fields.

It's not that women or men are better at certain things than the other, said Ruth Davis, associate dean of undergraduates for the School of Engineering, it's that they bring different perspectives to looking at a problem.

Laura Ellingson, director of the Women's and Gender Studies Program said she would argue that gender diversity is important to education, but it does create a more competitive atmosphere for women.

"In less than two generations, we've gone from not allowing women to allowing women who have to compete against each other at a much higher level than the men have to compete against each other," said Ellingson.

Contact Matthew Rupel at mrupel@scu.edu or call (408) 554-4849.