Last week I happened to be attending a conference at a
Midwestern medical school. Everywhere one looked there were smartly
dressed female students. Many were of Asian descent, naturally, but
not all. Every so often I came across a young man skulking across
campus, but the males were made all the more conspicuous by their
scarcity. I made a point of peeking into a few of the
auditorium-sized classrooms. Again, a sea of young women.
Now perhaps the males were having a mass skip day, or it
could be that like a lot of men I tend to filter out the guys and
tend only to notice the young gals. (Unlikely though, since I only
have eyes for my beautiful wife.) Medical
school enrollment figures show
that females account for half of all students, though
the distaff portion continues to rise. This
parity, however, is only possible due to the Herculean efforts of
admissions representatives. These days
schools of higher learning are cautious not to accept
too many female students. This particular school, like so many
others, goes out of its way to attract male students in order to
avoid the tipping point after which a college becomes known as a
“girls” school, at which point even fewer males apply.
Eventually medical schools may decide it is no longer
worth the effort, that there are plenty of excellent female
candidates, and they need no longer worry about attracting males.
Nor need they worry that an entire profession will be
regarded as women’s work. What will it matter if most,
if not all, our doctors and lawyers, like nearly all of our nurses,
reporters, veterinarians, etc., are women?
I THINK IT WILL MATTER. Civilization needs smart boys more
than it needs smart girls. Uneducated, uncivilized boys pose more
of a risk to society. Civilization requires gentlemen, who by that
very definition “never inflict pain.” Anyway, there is no reason
boys should be falling behind girls in either higher education or
in the professions. By every standard boys and girls are evenly
bright. (While boys do better in math and girls in languages, it
all evens out in the end.) What then explains the
disparity?
Theories abound. Among them that schools offer too many
girly-girl subjects (literature, grammar, music); that boys are
easily distracted and grow impatient with being seated for long
periods; that boys are told that studying and doing well in school
is “for sissies”; and that boys prefer to begin working and earning
as soon as possible. Girls, meanwhile, are more studious, and more
suited for “indoor” jobs. Most important, middle class girls are no
longer getting married and having children in their early twenties,
which leaves them open to graduate studies.
But I suspect another factor is at work here. Unlike in
times past, girls — at least middle class girls — are repeatedly
told (by parents, teachers, society) that they can be whatever they
want to be. Girls do not have to “settle” for such occupations as
teachers, nurses, or stay-at-home moms, the only options available
to smart girls a half century ago. More, in these
post-feminist days the stigma of being considered a “smart girl”
has largely disappeared. Girls can indeed be anything they desire,
from U.S. Senator to patent lawyer.
Boys, who often lack the studiousness of girls, present
more of a problem. When my friend and his wife had their baby
daughter he was happy to proclaim to the world that she would be a
doctor. Their next child was the long -awaited son and heir. “Look
at him,” my friend announced proudly. “He’s going to be a
linebacker!” From birth, he groomed his son to be a football
player. As far as I could tell, there was never any talk in the
home of the young boy being a doctor or an engineer or even a
lawyer. Mind you, this is a middle class family, living in a
suburban enclave of lawyers, MBAs, veterinarians, etc., and not a
poor single-parent household where the idea of graduate school
seems an impossible dream, and a million-to-one professional sports
contract seems like good odds.
Multiply this by a thousand children and you have what I
witnessed on the medical school campus the other day.
