The Feminization in Higher Education in Jamaica

Abstract

The issue of gender disparity in enrolment at private-higher educational institutions in Jamaica has never been comprehensively analysis. This issue is not new in other universities and/or colleges across the globe; but from the perspective of private institutions it is. The statistics on the gender distribution of enrolled students at higher educational institutions must be understood with the context of history and what does it mean for the future. In keeping with the purpose of this research, the following research objectives were examined herein: 1) determine the sex ratios of enrolled students from 1970-to-2017; 2) evaluate the gender inequality in student enrollment from 1970-to-2017, and 3) assess the trends in gender disparity in student enrolment for 1970-to-2017. For the present study, data were taken from documentary publications of the Planning Institute of Jamaica.  The timeframe for the present study was from 1970 through to 2017 (i.e., approximately 5 decades). The data were collected on November 10, 2017. Data were recorded, stored, and retrieved using the Statistical Packages for the Social Sciences (SPSS) for Windows, Version 25.0. Descriptive statistics were calculated for all the departments on the matter of student enrolment from 1988-2017. The gender inequality in student enrolment is evident in the studied higher educational institution. There is widening of the gender gap between male and female enrolled students since 1993. In fact, over the last 49 years (almost 5 decades), only in 1990 that male-enrolment was more than that of female-enrolment, 53.3% to 46.7%, respectively. Between 1969 and 1994, the number of fully registered students by gender has been constant and thereafter there has been a gender gap in enrolment. After 2000 there has been a widening of gender gap in enrolment. Since 2009, there has been a narrowing of the gender inequality in student enrolment as a result of the geometric decline in female enrolment compared to the arithmetic decline in male-enrolment.