大学阴盛阳衰之谜

    事实简单明了，甚至让人有些不解：相较于男性，女性上大学的比例更高，而且一旦进入大学校园，她们中途辍学的可能性也更低。美国学士学位持有者中，女大学毕业生现在占据了约60%的比重。

    这是否意味着男生不如女生那般勤勉，求学的决心没有女生大呢？

    未必如此。相反，这种性别差异的根源似乎在一定程度上与金钱有关：如今，完成一个本科学位越来越需要金钱作为后盾，男性不太愿意背负沉重的债务负担。一旦大学生所欠的助学贷款达到12,500美元，相较于女性，男性“更容易望而却步”，而且认为离开学校、开始全职工作才是明智之举。

    这个发现出自一篇刊发在最近一期《性别与社会》（Gender & Society）杂志上的研究论文：《性别、债务与大学生辍学现象》（Gender, Debt, and Dropping Out of College）。在劳工统计局（the Bureau of Labor Statistics）的资助下，三位来自美国的俄亥俄州立大学（Ohio State University）和太平洋路德大学（Pacific Lutheran University）的教授对1997年至2011年全美青年纵向研究的数据（其中包括对大约9,000名20多岁的青年人的采访纪要）进行了分析。

    事实证明，劳动力市场长期存在的薪酬差距是激励女性完成学业的重要因素之一。就短期而言，男性初入职场的薪水并不会因为辍学而减少。另一方面，女性一旦辍学，她们的薪酬马上就会一落千丈，因为女辍学生刚开始工作时的平均年薪要比男辍学生低6,500美元。

    “女辍学生显然要面临更糟糕的就业前景，”作者写道。“她们更有可能从事薪酬较低的服务类工作，而中途辍学的男生则更有机会在制造业、建筑业和交通运输业中找到薪酬较高的工作。”

    的确如此，但希望适龄子女读完大学的家长们或许想强调研究人员更深一层的发现：男辍学生的薪水优势往往昙花一现。这项研究指出，虽然毕业前离开大学的男生“刚开始不会面临多大的工资损失，但这种损失随后就会显现出来，而且还会与日俱增。迈入中年时，一年下来，拥有学位的男性要比上过大学但没有获得学位的男性平均多挣2万美元。”

    能够挣钱时不愿背负债务这一事实或许有助于解释为什么辍学的男生更多，但考上大学的男生比例少于女生这种现象又该如何解释呢？在一本名为《女性的崛起：受教育程度日益加剧的性别差异及其对美国校园的影响》（The Rise of Women: The Growing Gender Gap in Education and What It Means for American Schools）一书中，哥伦比亚大学（Columbia University）社会学教授托马斯•迪普雷特和俄亥俄州立大学社会学教授克劳迪娅•布赫曼试图解释这个棘手的问题，并给出了不同于传统看法的答案。

    男孩的成绩之所以比女孩差，他们之所以不太喜欢上学，并不是因为女孩天生就比男孩刻苦，也不是因为学校的环境对男孩不够“有利”——他们写道。正相反，“我们的研究显示，男孩在学校表现不佳更多的是与社会对‘阳刚之气’所确立的规范有关。相较于其他男生，喜欢参加音乐、艺术、戏剧和外语这类课外文化活动的男生更热衷于学校生活，成绩也更好。但这些活动时常受到贬低，说什么缺乏男子气概。”

    The facts are plain, if puzzling: Not only do women enter college at higher rates than men, but they're less likely to drop out once they get there. Female grads now account for about 60% of U.S. bachelor's degree holders.

    Does that mean men are less studious or committed than women are?

    Not necessarily. Instead, it seems the gender gap's roots are partly financial: Men are less willing to take on the heavy debt loads that are increasingly required to complete a college degree. When they reach the point of owing $12,500 in school loans, men "are more likely to be discouraged" than women -- and to decide it makes sense to leave school and start working full-time.

    That's according to a new study, "Gender, Debt, and Dropping Out of College," published in a recent issue of the journal Gender & Society. The researchers, three professors from Ohio State University and Pacific Lutheran University, analyzed data from a national longitudinal study of youth from 1997 to 2011, funded by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, that included interviews with about 9,000 men and women in their 20s.

    It turns out that persistent wage gaps in the labor market play a big part in motivating women to finish school. In the short term, men who drop out face no financial penalty in their entry-level salaries. Women, on the other hand, pay a steep price right away for dropping out, since female dropouts earn entry-level pay that averages $6,500 a year lower than what their male counterparts earn.

    "Female dropouts simply face worse job prospects," the authors observe. "They are more likely to be employed in lower-paying service work, while men who drop out have more opportunities in higher-paying jobs in manufacturing, construction, and transportation."

    True, but parents of college-age kids may want to emphasize one further finding: Male dropouts' earnings advantages are short-lived. While men who leave college before graduating "don't face a wage penalty early on, the penalty accumulates later," the study notes. "By middle age, men with a college degree earn $20,000 a year more, on average, than men with some college but no degree."

    An unwillingness to pile on debt when they could be making money may explain why more men quit school, but what accounts for the fact that fewer men start college in the first place? In a new book called The Rise of Women: The Growing Gender Gap in Education and What It Means for American Schools, Thomas A. DiPrete and Claudia Buchmann, sociology professors at Columbia and Ohio State, respectively, tackle that thorny question -- and come up with answers that challenge conventional wisdom.

    Boys get lower grades than girls, and report liking school less, not because girls are naturally more studious or because schools aren't "boy-friendly" enough, they write. Rather, "our research shows that boys' underperformance in school has more to do with society's norms about masculinity … Boys involved in extracurricular cultural activities such as music, art, drama, and foreign languages report higher levels of school engagement and get better grades than other boys. But these activities are often denigrated as un-masculine."