Yes, the statistics indicate that men are achieving less in academia and continue to make up a smaller share of college campuses, but this only tells one side of the story.
Just five years ago, Forbes found that the gap between the number of men and women in higher education in the U.S. grew from 200 thousand more women in 1979 to upwards of 3.1 million more women in 2021. In an earlier study, they found that in a workplace productivity experiment, female workers spent more time actively working than males. Women were more likely to stay engaged in tasks, with only 38% of women stopping work during breaks compared to 52% of men.
The media has been quick to latch onto these statistics, manufacturing a cultural narrative of male decline. Both the Atlantic and the New York Times often discuss what they call the “Boy crisis in education,” highlighting that, on average, men earn lower grades and make up much less of college campuses. But the reality is simple: men can afford to do so. At least in the United States, men don’t necessarily “need” college to find the same success. In June of 2023, the Bureau of Labor Statistics found that men, both with and without high school diplomas, were 20% more likely to be hired than women with similar qualifications.
Politically, “men falling behind” hasn’t meant much: in our current congressional session, Women make up about 28% of the U.S. Congress, and hold only about 26% of seats in the U.S. Senate. But this isn’t where the inequality stops. In 2025, Catalyst found that only about 10-11% of Fortune 500 companies had female CEOs, with men holding nearly 90% of these top corporate positions. The Pew Research Center also noted that women typically earn 82 cents for every dollar earned by a man, resulting in over $11,500 in lost wages annually for the average woman. Oftentimes, when minority groups make gains, the norm-shifting feels like inequality.
Loyola student Ricardo Torres ‘26 expressed the same idea, saying, “Women are simply catching up to the systemic injustice that they have been dealing with since the dawn of time.” In my talk with him, we both brought up what many feminist economists call the pink tax. It is the extra money that women pay for everything, ranging from personal care products to children’s clothes. In a study conducted over the last couple of years, Kiplinger found that women may pay about $1,300 more per year for products and services due to gender-based pricing. Over a lifetime, this can total around $188,000 in additional costs compared with men.
As both cubs and young men, it is our job to lift up our sisters and applaud the work it has taken to even be the majority group in major institutions across the country.
Israel Ramirez ‘26 was adamant about this, saying, “I honestly think us ‘falling behind’ is a very non-issue. We just have to be proud of women who have accomplished so much while being faced with an endless list of injustices.”
