U.S. Investigates Whether Colleges Discriminate Against Female Applicants
By Stephanie Baer November 2, 2009 | 3:52 pm
Posted in: Higher Education
The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights has started a formal investigation to see to what extent liberal arts colleges discriminate against female applicants in an attempt to balance genders in the student body.
On Oct. 30, the commission decided on a set of colleges to investigate, but declined to release the full list.
In recent years, many liberal arts colleges have worried about their gender ratios that show the colleges’ difficulty in attracting both male and female applicants.Private undergraduate colleges are exempt from the admissions provisions of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, so they have the right to consider gender in the admissions process.
Nationally, female enrollments in colleges and universities have grown; according to an article in Inside Higher Ed, about 58 percent of bachelor’s degrees are awarded to women and gender gaps have become visible not only at liberal arts colleges, but also at many larger institutions.
Despite this shared visibility, liberal arts colleges’ smaller student bodies make gender gaps more apparent than those of larger institutions.
The commission’s inquiry suggests the idea of whether Title IX is causing this discrimination and of whether female applicants are being treated unfairly in college admissions.
