Are Men Left Behind? The Gender Gap at All NJ Colleges, Universities

September 19, 2023

New Jersey colleges and universities have seen an average of 40,000 more women than men as undergraduates over just a five-year span ending last fall.

Years of enrollment data show that NJ has been part of a nationwide, decades-long trend of notably more female college students.

Last fall alone, female undergrads outnumbered male students at NJ colleges by a count of roughly 171,000 to 141,000. State higher education data does not include a non-binary category, at this time.

How much money do graduates earn?

Rutgers University public policy professor Jocelyn Elise Crowley says while the numbers do show positive movement in educational opportunity — the question — and the problem — is, what happens after they leave college?

Crowley, professor at the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers, said there are still the same, traditional patterns that have played out for years.

Higher-paying “STEM” fields have still been largely dominated by men.

A clear example — NJ post-secondary degree trends for the school year ending 2022 showed 71% of graduates from both NJIT and Stevens Institute of Technology were men.

The gender gap in jobs

Crowley said a continued obstacle is occupational or job segregation.

“Women tend to go into fields that pay less than men — sometimes even if they are in the same field, they’re paid less because of some type of conscious or unconscious bias by employers,” according to Crowley.

While men have been steadily doing more household work and spending more active parenting time with their own children — women also still do the bulk of family child care, she continued.

Crowley said a crucial tip for female college graduates is to know their worth — do lots of research and negotiate fair, competitive starting salaries as they job hunt.

NJ1015.com, September 19, 2023

Recent Posts

NJSPL Report: Supporting Aging in Place in New Jersey

Report Release – Supporting Aging in Place in New Jersey: A SWOT Analysis of Assisted Living Programs by Ayse Akincigil, Uri Amir Koren, Jasmine Akman, Dima Bischoff-Hashem, Karen Zurlo Read Report New Jersey has an innovative Assisted Living Program (ALP) designed...

Edwards: Disability, Job Satisfaction, and Accommodations

Disability, Job Satisfaction, and Workplace Accommodations: Evidence from the Healthcare Industry Abstract Purpose: This paper examines the extent to which job satisfaction, requests for accommodations, and the likelihood of a request being granted vary by disability...

New Report – State of the Climate: New Jersey 2024

Overview The State of the Climate: New Jersey report annually summarizes updated scientific information on climate trends and projections that can be used by state and local decision-makers, researchers, hazard planning and climate resilience professionals, and...

NJSPL: How E-Bikes Could Bridge the Healthcare Gap

by Yingning Xie Pedaling Toward Access: How E-Bikes Could Bridge the Healthcare Gap Imagine needing medical care but being sidelined by the simple fact that you can’t get to your provider. In New Jersey, and across the U.S., accessing healthcare and wellness support...

“Work Trends RU” Podcast with Rachel Korberg

This week's guest on the Heldrich Center's Work Trends RU podcast is Rachel Korberg, Executive Director and Co-Founder of the Families and Workers Fund. Rachel is also a member of the Heldrich Center’s National Advisory Board. In this episode, Rachel shares: The...