Female Supremacy Articles - Page 21

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Women's growing academic muscle has spread to higher education, as well. Males now comprise only 42 percent of U.S. college students, representing minorities at Fairfield and Wesleyan universities and the University of Connecticut. The U.S. Department of Education expects female college enrollment to grow nearly twice as fast as male enrollment by 2014.

"I think women are excelling because women have been empowered," said Post University President Patricia Sanders, in part crediting greater effort to boost girls' interest in traditionally overlooked subjects like science and math.

Sanders couldn't break down Post's overall enrollment by gender, but said its adult education program is primarily female.

Sequeira said he remembers girls as the superior students when he was in school.

"No matter what subject, they were also much more focused on learning than boys were," he said, even though "they didn't have the same opportunities back then that they have today."

Reactions to the gender gap vary, depending on how it's interpreted. To the extent it represents females reaching their full potential, Sanders said she welcomes it. But other disparities between genders -- the fact that Connecticut males are a third more likely to drop out of high school, for instance -- should raise a warning flag, she said.

"I'm not sure it's a problem, but we have to find out what's going on."