Edward Seaga
Looking out of any window or walking in any part of the Mona campus of the University of the West Indies, it is readily noticeable that there are many more female than male students. In fact, the latest figures reveal the exact ratio: 82 per cent female, 18 per cent male, which, I believe, is the widest gap ever.
In a university with four girls to every boy, it would seem that boys would do anything possible to be enrolled there. But that is not the case it is not for the lack of desire on the part of boys to gain entry, it is merely because they lack the qualifications for admission.
This is not a university phenomenon. Visit any rural or inner-city secondary school at graduation time and check the much smaller number of boys than girls in the graduating class.
It is known that girls between 12 and 18 years old are generally two years more advanced than boys in scholastic aptitude. The two genders do not level off until they are about to leave their teens. This is a product of the biological difference of the genders. But this alone is not the reason. The social environment in which girls are raised define their roles more fully than for boys who are given a freer hand.
Defined roles
The defined roles for the girls are organised into systematic, conformist behaviour patterns and rules of socially acceptable conduct. Young girls are taught that they will be given recognition and praise if they conform. This teaches them how to organise and conduct themselves to gain recognition. The modes of organisation in the life of a girl are valuable tools for learning and they adapt themselves more readily to the learning process than boys.
My view is only one of several from written accounts on this worrying situation.
Professor Errol Miller believes that the shift in teaching education from a male dominated profession to female dominance in the post-war era had a direct impact on the underachievement of males in schools. The feminisation of the methods of teaching, which is centred on a specific routine, has worked to the disadvantage of male students in what he calls "the feminisation of academia".
Professor Mark Figueroa postulates similarly: because females are taught self-discipline, time management and a sense of process, this reality spills over into the classroom setting where you will find nine females adapting to the organised regimented education system from which they benefit by doing what they were taught to do - listen, be quiet, obedient and attentive. Males fail to adapt to this regime.
The cultural approach of the two sexes is different. Professor Barry Chevannes thinks there is a perception among males that academics is 'girl stuff'. The more positive response from girls, also, tends to encourage more courses to be offered which are attractive to females, leaving less options for males to find areas that they can be passionate about.
Elements of the reality
There are elements of the reality in all of these views but the issue is far more complex and deserves a serious insightful study. What role does poverty play? Does an educated home environment encourage males to be academically trained? Is the single mother household a motivational force for daughters to seek higher education? The questions are endless.
But what turns on this sizeable imbalance in the educated class? Here is where the importance of a deeper understanding becomes critical to the social development of the society.
If four times as many graduates are girls compared to boys, how do educated girls find sufficient equally educated boys to make good partners? Is this mismatch leading to 'marrying down', creating partnerships were the much brighter female has to tolerate the far less educated male? Is this relevant to the stability of the union? Are the children of such unions at risk in unstable settings?
One option
The single mother is an option for such women who may feel that in the absence of a suitable partner for an endearing union, the best choice is to find a suitable male 'stud' to father her child and then proceed to pursue her career as a single mother.
If the excessively educated female population is going this route, single motherhood as a deliberate choice, what will be the impact on the development of the family unit? Already with nearly 50 per cent of Jamaican households falling in this category, is it a positive prospect for the social development of the society to passively observe the growth of single motherhood? If not, what can be done to provide the proper balance between educated males and females which is more conducive to creating familystability?
One solution is to maximise the training of women in specific areas for which there is a great demand in industrial countries: teachers and nurses. The excess will migrate to find their educated partners rather than seek inferior options at home.
The phenomenon of an excess of tertiary-trained females is already sufficiently established that the results are being seen in today's society. Women are taking over many senior positions once considered the province of men and the trend is growing. This will undoubtedly be a problem to men, but the society could benefit from the move to more women in administration given their more diligent and systematic approach.
Not really worried
As for the men, they are not really worried. The Jamaican man is full of self-confidence that he can handle any Jamaican woman at any level; because while women might have more learning, they have the 'essential tool' that is the great social leveller: their ability, or perhaps more accurately, their reputation as studs.
A well-known female professor at Mona told me this appropriate story of her encounter with a strange man while she was enjoying a little relaxation alone on a beach at Hellshire.
After introducing himself as a bus conductor, he asked her where she worked. "At the University at Mona. I am a doctor," she said. "Well", he replied expectantly, "I run the route through there from August Town, so I can check you when I coming through." She was taken aback immediately by his presumption of a matchup between a 'doctor' and a 'ductor'. Obviously, from a position of ignorance, the difference would only be a single vowel, which tells its own story as to why males feel that there is little necessity to be educated.
While it may be true that money makes the world go round, it is the social interactions that provide the oil or creates the rust.
Here is a problem of social interaction dying to be explored to determine to what extent it may be gumming up the wheels of progress. Who will take up the challenge?
Edward Seaga is a former Prime Minister. He is a distinguished fellow at the UWI. Email: odf@uwimona.edu.jm.
