Gender gap in women's favour goes right to the top of class

Anthea Johnson is studying the ability of plants to take up minerals in soil. Picture / Kenny Rodger

The brain power gap between males and females has reached the highest levels of academia - more women are now enrolling in doctoral degrees at university than men.

The Tertiary Education Strategy monitoring report for 2005 revealed the numbers of females starting doctorates has overtaken males for the first time.

Since 1997, the number of women doing doctorates has increased by 70 per cent - from 1200 to 2050 in 2005.

Males enrolling have also increased, but at a slower rate - up by 20 per cent, from 1550 to 1850 in 2005.

Dr Paul Baker, rector of Waitaki Boys' High School and a member of the Government's ministerial review committee for boys' education, said the current job market could be sending more men into trades, because of instant remuneration.

"I think increasingly males in particular seem to be in for instant gratification and studying for a PhD can be anathema to that. More females than males probably have the attributes for that long, patient, thorough process of study."

He said the gender gap at university was growing fast, by almost one percentage point a year.

Last year, women made up 57 per cent of the students at the country's eight universities, with 79,815 against 59,336 men. 14,146 were doing postgraduate qualifications, compared with 9891 men.

"Given there are considerably more women at university overall, it would be surprising if that didn't extend sooner or later to doctoral level. It is the most dynamic trend at any level of education in terms of gender gap. It's international and if it continues, soon the numbers of males at university will be 44 per cent."

He said it was crucial to address the increasing gap in achievement.

At secondary school level, 59 per cent of females got a level three NCEA qualification last year, compared with 48 per cent of males.

"Are fewer males going to university because they are disenchanted with education while they're at school? Or do males do less while at school because they've already decided they are not going to university and therefore don't have the motivation to achieve?"

Professor Gregor Costa, dean of Auckland University's school of graduate studies, said he expected the trend to start flattening out.

"I think universities have been very proactive in fostering women coming through to higher studies. That has been an equal opportunities issue. Now that's happened, so all credit to the universities for doing it and to women for taking up the challenge. As to why they have overtaken men, it's not clear. I wouldn't think the trend will accelerate much beyond the present position. Men still have a keen interest in research and those skills are valuable."

Mr Costa said women tended to study in areas such as education and the arts.

"There is an interest in that research, while I think men have traditionally had an interest in science and engineering. I would like to see more women undertaking work in science and engineering, but that is a trend that is going to change, there is a growing interest in those subjects."

Ministry of Education statistics showed women at tertiary level tended to dominate in the areas of education (80 per cent), food, hospitality and personal services (65 per cent), society and culture (65 per cent), and creative arts (62 per cent).

Men were the majority in engineering and related technologies, architecture and building, and agriculture and environmental studies.


On the rise

Women enrolled in doctoral degrees:
* 1997: 1200 - 43 per cent
* 2002: 1750 - 48 per cent
* 2005: 2050 - 53 per cent


On her way to engineer a doctorate

The life of an aspiring doctoral student is hardly the most glamorous.

Seven days a week, Anthea Johnson, 24, comes into the environmental engineering laboratory on the third floor of the engineering building at Auckland University.

She goes into a temperature and humidity controlled chiller and waters her plants - mustard and rye grass - hundreds of them and they will die if she takes even one day off.

Her research is on the ability of plants to take up metals in the soil. The office has a view of the harbour and the domain, but Ms Johnson's back is turned for hours while she "harvests" the tiny roots and stems.

Ms Johnson is in her third year of doctoral studies in environmental engineering. The vast majority of females are attracted to postgraduate studies in education or the arts - not an area of engineering which looks at waste water. But all five PhD students in the area are females.

She reckons men were more attracted to it in the old days when it was called "mining engineering" but now they tend to go to electrical and civil engineering, where they can build things.

Ms Johnson was attracted to engineering by a female PhD student, who spoke at her school and so she also offers to speak at school careers seminars. After gaining work experience as an undergraduate she decided to pursue research.

"You realise you've got 40 years of work afterward, and maybe if you could do something different ... it would be an improvement."

Despite the shortage of engineers, she "decided to do more study because I knew once you get out, once you get a salary, you never go back to student life, living on noodles and spending all night in the lab."