The Rise of Women in Higher Education: How, Why, and What's Next - Paperback

by Gary A. Berg (Author)

The story of the American university in the past half century is about the rise of women in participation as students, faculty members, college athletes, and in subsequently changing the overall university culture for the better. Now almost sixty percent of the overall college student population in America is female, and still growing. By the year 2000, women surpassed men worldwide in attendance at higher education institutions. At the same time, after years of a disproportionate dominant male professoriate, female faculty members are now becoming the majority of university professors. While top university presidents are still largely male, women have achieved real gains in the overall administrative ranks and trustee positions. In all areas of the university disparities still exist in terms of compensation and balance in key areas of the academy, but the overall positive trend is clear. Few to this date have recognized and chronicled this extraordinary change in college education--one of society's fundamental and influential institutions. For universities the test for the future is to make the changes needed in broad areas within higher education from financial aid to curriculum, student activities, and overall campus culture in order to better foster a newly empowered majority of women students.

Author Biography

Gary A. Berg, PhD, MFA, is the author/editor of eight previous books including Low-Income Students and the Perpetuation of Inequality and Lessons from the Edge: For-profit and Nontraditional Higher Education in America, and numerous academic journal articles, as well as interviews and opinion pieces in popular media. His research has spanned topics such as technology uses for educational purposes, public policy issues on admissions and financial aid, and innovative work in universities and non-profit organizations.