Degrees of Difference Women, Men, and the Value of Higher Education

This volume investigates the dissonance between the supposed advantage held by educated women and their continued lack of economic and political power. Niemi explains the developments of the so-called "female advantage" and "boy crisis" in American higher education, setting them alongside socioeconomic and racial developments in women?s and men?s lives throughout the last 40 years. Exploring the relationship between higher education credentials and their utility in creating political, economic, and social success, Degrees of Difference identifies ways in which gender and academic achievement contribute to women?s and men?s power to shape their lives. This important book brings new light to the issues of power, gender identities, and the role of American higher education in creating gender equity.

Contents

List of Figures and Tables

Preface

Acknowledgments

Chapter One College credentials as female disadvantage?

Chapter Two Power, patriarchy, and gender identity in higher education

Chapter Three We’ve been here before: Gendered realignments behind the ivy

Chapter Four The ambiguous "female advantage"

Chapter Five American men: Other places to be

Chapter Six Higher education, less power: Gender equity post-college

Chapter Seven A dream deterred?

References

Index

Nancy S. Niemi is Director of Faculty Teaching Initiatives at the Center for Teaching and Learning at Yale University, USA.