Yet another topic highlighted at the World Conference on Higher Education last week was the increase in the number of women in higher education.  Internationally, women now outnumber men for the first time, and that trend is expected to increase.  In the United States and West Virginia, women in higher education began to outnumber men quite a few years ago.  Today, for example, more than 55% of West Virginia’s public institution students are women.

Last month, Foreign Policy wrote about the results of these trends.  The subtitle and first sentence say it all: “Manly men have been running the world forever.  But the Great Recession is changing all that, and it will alter the course of history.  The era of male dominance is coming to an end.”  In addition to noting that women soon will account for 60% of higher education students in the United States, the article points out that 80% of the job losses experienced since November have been experienced by men.  Foreign Policy goes on to discuss the probable consequences of this shift.

I had been bothered by the ARRA’s heavy emphasis on “shovel-ready” infrastructure projects and other activities which benefit men disproportionately.  No more.  Men need all the help they can get.

In the larger scheme of world history, the trend from a man’s world to a woman’s world, which was not a central focus of the World Conference on Higher Education, may be the most significant.