From 67.131.105.71 on May 23, 2008 at 12:26 PM

Well said Richard!

(And I am glad you owned up to a certain 1992 editorial that opened "Girls are clearly not the teachers' pets in public schools" and ended "Just think what 51% of the population could achieve given an even start." Written by another tool of the AAUW publicity machine, for sure.)

- Betsy Hammond, The Oregonian

From magdelyn Prossii on May 23, 2008 at 7:39 PM

Only the AAUW Can Report on the Boy Crisis by Examining "Where the Girls Are."
Ah yes, the "boy crisis." The AAUW released another study attacking the "boy crisis," much like the Educational Sector's bankrupt report by Sara Mead, which concluded that there is not a boy crisis, and that the disproportionate performance of girls is not bad news about boys doing worse, but good news about girls doing better, and that boys are doing better than ever before. The Washington Post and other news media has passed along this garbage with no critical analysis.

Of course, these arguments are ridiculous. To argue that boys are "doing better than ever before," both the Education Sector and AAUW base their arguments on absolute numbers. That is to say that more men go to college now, than say in 1950. The argument is bankrupt, easily destroyed by arguing the absurd. For instance, say that today 100,000 people are going to college, 60,000 girls, and 40,000 boys (60/40). All of a sudden, the next day, the college population doubles to 200,000 people, 150,000 girls, and 50,000 boys. The argument can be made, "Well, boys are doing better than ever. Now we have 10,000 more boys going to college." But in reality, whereas yesterday we had a distrubtion of 60% girls, and 40% boys, today, we have 75% girls and 25% boys. When exactly does it become a crisis? When 80% of college classes are are made up of women? 90%? Ever? With this argument, we can get rid of affirmative action because blacks are doing better than ever before. Silly.

In 1992, when the AAUW came out with its polemic report that girls were being screwed in schools, the AAUW supressed evidence that girls had already surpased boys in almost all subjects and almost all measures. That trend has condinued. Today, with 57% of colleges made up of women, the disparity continues to grow.

When women were the ones outnumbered at colleges, we blamed the schools and passed Title IX. When boys are getting screwed, we blame the boys and largely ignore the problem. Anybody who has studied the situation knows that both the Education Sector and the AAUW's recent reports are attempts to make lemonade out of lemons, by putting a gloss over that which has become abundantly clear; boys are getting metaphorically raped by an education system.

What has happened is that women's organizations, in an attempt to mitigate any call for the fair distrubtion of resources, have played the race card and said, "Oh, don't worry white middle America, your sons aren't doing that much worse that white girls, its only the blacks and Latinos who are woefully behind -- no problem here." The argument is racist and patently untrue on both the interpretation of the research and the actual facts. Boys -- ALL BOYS -- regardless of income or race fare worse than girls, a reversal of fortunes that has specifically been ignored by both the media and academics, because boys are not as sypathetic as girls. The race/class argument has not, to my knowledge been used when arguing comparative disadvantage of girls.

Both the Orwellian language used in their arguments by opponents of helping boys, and the repeated attempts to disprove the obvious, betray the notion that girls progress has been not come at the expense of boys. This is a fight about resources. Thank God for the women who are mothers of boys.

It is also rather scandelous that Title IX, a gender neutral statute, has been interpreted by the bureocratic establishment as not benefiting anyone but girls. The enforcement has been corrupt.

It's not all bad, of course. It turns out that women are earning 77 cents per dollar a man makes. This is not bad news about guys earning too much, it is good news about women. Women are earning more now than ever before. Nothing to see here.

From 66.108.60.36 on May 24, 2008 at 5:53 PM

"it's not all bad; turns out women are earning 77 cents for every dollar men make". pretty much says it all. if your objective look at the world suggests that women have an advantage over men, well, gee, one can only wonder what color the sky is in your world.

From jhon bletz on May 25, 2008 at 9:50 AM

well,
what exactly is your point ?
sorry for asking..

ido

From 163.192.21.44 on May 25, 2008 at 10:19 AM

As an education reporter I am amazed at the various organizations that exist locally and nationally for girls. The organizations to their credit still push to move girls up in math and science. But research, test scores and drop out rates shows boys need the help now in math, science and everything else. In our politically-correct world, I wonder when or if an organization (American Association of University Men?) can rise up to help boys?
On a side note the American Association of University Women should be ashamed of itself for promoting bias, false data while billing itself an "education" group. The group should be basking in the glory of accomplishing its mission of enlightening girls and now be helping boys.

From 68.8.153.26 on May 28, 2008 at 6:41 PM

To the person who cited the "pay gap," that myth has been debunked over and over again. It is only a snapshot of yearly incomes that doesn't account for overtime (which men work about 90% of), type of work, number of hours, etc. When all those factors are considered there is no pay gap and in fact women outearn men in many fields including science fields like engineering. In "Why Men Earn More" Warren Farrell showed there are 25 work-life choices men and women make that lead to men earning more and women having more balanced lives. Those choices include hours, commute distances, danger, etc. In surveys, men prioritized money while women prioritized less hours, flexibility, shorter commutes, and factors conducive to their choice to be primary parents, a choice men don't have nearly as much. Men make 92% of occupational deaths, and those working class jobs pay a bit more than office jobs which women choose more. There are many factors that the "pay gap" doesn't account for. When you really look at it, the pay gap is a reflection of the fact that women have more options than men. Over 60% of female USC graduates opted out of the work force over time, because they choose to stay home, and option men hardly have. That's why never-married childless women outearn their male counterparts, and in NY, NY women are outearning men because there's a higher concentration of never married childless people.

Here are numerous article refuting the "pay gap" lie.

Prof. June O'Neill, Ph.D., former director of Congressional Budget Office, refutes the significance of the "pay gap" in "The Gender Gap in Wages, circa 2000" (5/03), American Economic Review, http://money.cnn.com/2007/06/04/magazines/fortune/muphy_payact.fortune/index.htm

http://money.cnn.com/2006/02/28/commentary/everyday/sahadi/index.htm

ABC News: "Is the Wage Gap Women's Choice? Research Suggests Career Decisions, Not Sex Bias, Are at Root of Pay Disparity"
http://abcnews.go.com/2020/GiveMeABreak/story?id=797045&page=1&CMP=OTC-RSSFeeds0312

http://www.startribune.com/562/story/1156698.html

http://www.nysun.com/article/50601

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/03/nyregion/03women.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

From 128.197.191.86 on May 29, 2008 at 12:07 PM

Richard Whitmire says that there are huge gender gaps among African Americans. In fact, girls do somewhat better, but not all that much. In new York, for example, according to a gates foundation study, in New York, among Blacks, 33 percent of males and 43 percent of females graduate. Very bad results for both sexes.

he also says there is a big gender gap among high income whites, favoring girls. But the gates study, done by the Manhattan Institute, finds
that while it is true that among whites, girls are more likely to graduate than boys, the gap is relatively small, only five percent. Among Asians, the gap is even smaller, some three percent.

Large scale federal studies are the best indicator of what's happening across the board. You can pretty much find whatever you want looking at smaller studies.

The Gold standard study in this area is "The Truth About Boys and Girls" from the think tank "Education Sector." The author of this report, Sara Mead, just posted this to the new republic blog:

"I just saw your post on the new AAUW study; since you had questions
about its objectivity (which is fair, given the documented problems with
their 1992 "how schools shortchange girls" report), I wanted to direct you
to a report I wrote for Education Sector, a nonpartisan education policy
think tank, two years ago. Using federal data, I found basically the same
things the AAUW report does: many key educational outcome indicators are
improving for both boys and girls; elementary school aged boys, in
particular, are doing as well as or better than ever academically; to the
extent that gender gaps favoring girls exist, they happen because girls have
made significant gains, not because boys' achievement has declined; and
achievement gaps by race/ethnicity and income and much larger and more
significant than gender gaps."

The truth is that there is no new and dramatic Boy crisis. There is, however, a Some Boys crisis. Inner city black and Hispanic boys and white rural boys are truly in crisis. Working class white boys also often have academic problems. Suburban white and Asian boys are doing quite well. The fact that girls fill some 55 percent of college seats is
hardly reason for panic.

There does not have to be a "Crisis" to make us pay attention to boys' problems where they exist, and to try to fix them. A bigger crisis is that
American students, boys and girls, lag badly behind their peers in Europe and Asia in many areas.

Pitting boys against girls, as some have done (See Christina Hoff Sommers "The War Against Boys") just harma all kids--Caryl Rivers, professor of Journalism, Boston University.