The issue
Since the 1970’s there has been a higher-education gender inequality in favor of women. The gap continued to grow until 2003 when the ratios leveled off, with the exception of the Hispanic community.

According to an American Council on Education (ACE) study titled, Gender Equity in Higher Education (which this blog is based on), 57% of all US undergraduates are women, although results vary with races and ethnicities.

The Mexican-American and African-American gender gap, is closer to 63% women to 37% men.

Even though undergraduate enrollment among Hispanics has spiked in the last decade, Latinas are by far outpacing their male counterparts. In the past decade, college enrollment among Hispanic women increased by 70 %, compared with 56 % among Hispanic men. By 2006, 31% of college-age Hispanic women were enrolled in college, while 21% of college-age Hispanic men were.

Not only are Hispanic men losing ground to Hispanic women at enrolling in universities but they also have the lowest bachelor’s degree attainment level (10 %), while Hispanic women are attaining a bachelor’s degree at the same rate as African-American women (18 %).

How did it happen?
Some of the reasoning behind this gender disparity within the Hispanic community is due to the women’s rights movement in the 1970’s, the constant flow of under educated migration, and the effects of gender roles.

Women’s rights movement
For a long time, Hispanics kept their daughters “close by”, and going away to college was not expected, but with the social rights movement more and more women started attending local colleges/universities. This way they could still be close to home while still earning a degree. And now that more and more women have attained a higher education it has become kind of a multiplier.

Migration
Hispanics males migrate at a 3 to 1 rate versus women, and those migrants come here to work full time and not necessarily for a college education. Schooling becomes an afterthought, but here too they are at a disadvantage, with only 51% of immigrants having a high school degree, compared with 81 % of U.S.-born Hispanics.

Of male immigrants fewer than half have completed high school and only 6% come with a bachelor’s degree. A Pew Hispanic Center study released in October reported that about half of the Hispanics surveyed said limited English skills kept them from continuing their education. And the study found that less than 30% of Hispanic immigrants aspire to earn a bachelor’s degree, compared with 60% of native-born Hispanics.

Gender roles
Hispanic males struggle with the roles they often play in their household; they are expected to be breadwinners responsible for contributing to the family expenses, while young Hispanic girls are raised in a stricter manner with more of an emphasis on school. Males are more likely to enter the work force at an earlier age rather than complete college or even high school. It is not uncommon to hear Hispanics say that they did not continue their education because they had to support a family.

Solution?
The gender gap is important and should be addressed by educators, policy makers and by individuals who understand the importance of this issue. If we don’t do something about it, Hispanic men will continue to be left behind.

This has become a cycle where Hispanic men continue to live and raise families in economically challenged neighborhoods and as a result Hispanic children continue to be disadvantaged and have a harder time in school. Ultimately without higher education it is becoming increasingly more difficult to land higher paying jobs. And research shows that the more affluent a family becomes the less the gender gap comes into effect.