Gender Inequality in Student Debt
Samantha Van Dyke
Female college students across Arkansas are, in some cases, facing up to thousands of dollars more in debt than their male counterparts, according to data collected by College Scorecard.
On average, the median debt for students is about $9,015, with female students alone having around $10,451 in debt and male students having around $9,091. The disparity becomes more apparent when assessing individual schools, such as Bryan University which has a difference of $9,047.
Amongst the top universities with the greatest disparity in female versus male loan debt is Lyon College. On average, female students at Lyon have $8,250 more debt than their male classmate, making it the college with the second largest gap in Arkansas.
Lyon College financial aid director Tommy Tucker said he isn’t quite sure why the gap is so large.
“In my experience speaking with the students, I would not have expected to see a gap like that,” Tucker said. “Most of our female students have higher academic records, which would lead me to believe they’d be eligible for more scholarships which would lower their debt.”
This problem isn’t just specific to Lyon though, 40 Arkansas colleges have female students with higher debt, including the University of Arkansas.
“I think a lot of things could contribute to higher debt for female students, though things like this are usually very case specific,” said Denise Burford, the Associate Director of Financial Aid University of Arkansas.
“We have a lot of male students involved in work studies, as well as full-time internships while they are part-time students,” said Burford. “This can really help students contribute financially to their loans as they go through school.”
Lisa Corrigan, the gender studies program coordinator at the University of Arkansas, said part of the reason women have more college loan debt has a lot to do with the degrees they pursue.
“Predatory lending is gendered,” Corrigan said. “Women get recruited for for-profit degrees at higher rates than men.”
Corrigan said that this is particularly problematic for women of color, who sometimes get scammed into getting degrees from unaccredited programs and then become not hirable.
Corrigan also attributed the higher debt for women to the “leaky pipeline,” a term in gender studies literature that refers to women who begin college or career paths and drop out half way through.
“Some of its financial,” Corrigan said, “Like the burden of loans, but it’s also social support. There aren’t strong family leave policies so women who have children aren’t supported and they have a hard time graduating, which leads to a lot of that debt.”
Corrigan said the higher debt for female students connects to a bigger problem in higher education- equality in accessibility of funding. She said she believes that in the next five years the Department of Education will be abolished, leaving colleges with only privatized funding.
“This is a very brutal political movement that we are about to enter,” Corrigan said. “Women will have access to higher education, but it will be extremely limited and it will be overwhelmingly white.”
These high levels of debt are not just a concern for women in the future, however. Lyon College freshman Peyton Groves said she is overwhelmed by the debt she is in after not even a full semester at the school.
“It’s incredibly disappointing that a university that emphasizes equality can have such a glaring gap in debt and that they don’t seem to care, “Groves said.
Groves does not plan to return to the school next semester, as she said she can no longer afford to pay to go there.
“The opportunities provided do not outweigh the cost by any means.”
Contacts
Tommy Tucker- Financial Aid Director Lyon College- (870) 307-7257
Denise Burford -Associate Director of Financial Aid University of Arkansas- (479)575-6965
Lisa Corrigan-Gender Studies Program Coordinator- (479)575-3046
Peyton Groves- Lyon College freshman- (469)509-8448
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