Why More Girls Than Boys Are Entering College.

More girls than boys are going to college. Conservatives commentators claim this is due to the feminization of education. Guys either opt out because schools are hostile to them, and/or girls are at an advantage because schools speak their language. But which is cause and which is effect? Are there fewer males because schools are more feminized, or are schools more feminized because there are fewer males? More likely, it’s largely a combination of two other factors: the greater variation of intelligence among males than among females, and falling entry requirements.

Assume two normal distributions, two bell shaped curves: blue and green. They both have the same average. One has more variation than the other. At the tails, there are more blues than greens. In the middle, there are more greens than blues. If you bisect the overlapping bell shaped curves at some point above the averages there will be more blues than greens. If you bisect the curves at some point below the averages, there will be more greens than blues.

Think of the different methods of bisecting the distributions as falling entry requirements. Think of the wide-and-low blue distribution as boys, and the narrow-and-tall green distribution as girls. More and more people are entering college. Entry requirements are falling. We have moved from an era when more boys were qualified to an era when more girls are qualified.