UF Study suggests women learn less than men during college

October 10, 2001

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Despite closing the gender gap in higher education in recent years, women learn only two-thirds of what men do during college, according to a researcher at the University of Florida.

Lamont Flowers, an assistant professor in UF’s College of Education, co-authored the study of 19,000 college students at 56 four-year colleges and universities in 13 states. The study, which he conducted with three other researchers from the University of Iowa and the University of Missouri, appears in the current issue of The Journal of Higher Education.

“The study looked primarily at the effect of college on learning,” Flowers said. “Taken as a whole, it was found that women on average tended to gain 67 percent of what men gained from freshman to senior year.”

Flowers said the study should prompt individual institutions to look at whether women are learning less than males at that particular school, and if so, why.

“Perhaps there is a difference woven into the fabric of the institution that socializes this gender learning difference,” he said. “This study suggests that there is a gender difference in learning gains. It doesn’t certify it, but I think the differences are sizeable enough to warrant individual attention on college campuses.”

Using results from a test called the College Basic Academic Subjects Examination, or CBASE, the researchers measured students once in English, science, math and social studies. The testing occurred during a five-year period between 1993 and 1998. Flowers measured the difference in learning between men and women by comparing variations between students enrolled in each academic year.

Although the gender gap was most striking between the freshman and senior years, Flowers said, the degree of selectivity and type of college or university had little correlation on student learning in college.

Flowers said he also examined differences in race, institution type and ACT scores prior to the students’ attending college, but found little to suggest a significant disparity.

Although the study was unable to take into account precollege academic ability levels, he said, men and women may enter college at different levels to begin with. However, he said, assuming men and women begin college with comparable levels of academic ability, the findings may point to problems at individual colleges or universities, which clearly supports the need for institutional research that probes potential gender differences in learning and development in college.

Other factors Flowers said may play a role in the study’s findings include the way men and women tend to choose different majors that may place different emphasis on the areas tested on the CBASE.

Whatever the reason, Flowers cautions against taking the results purely at face value. He cites the researchers’ lack of ability to control certain factors such as Greek affiliation and family characteristics as influences he plans to research further.

“There were a number of limitations in this particular project,” he said. “But the difference still remains.”