Bryan university leads in the state of Arkansas as the university with the highest disparity between men and women, amongst other intuitions there is an elevated pattern for women’s student loan debts versus their male peers, according to the data taken from College Scorecard.

By furthering the research and breaking down the key components as to why one gender has a higher student loan debt rate, students can have a better understanding for the fundamental infrastructure of the student loan debt crisis. Thus, the underlying question is, is there such a thing as a “Pink Tax” or a “Pink Interest Rate” for female student loan default and/or debts?

Female students at Bryan university have the most amount of female student loan debt in the state of Arkansas, at a staggering rate of $9,047 more debt than their fellow male peers. It should also be noted that Bryan university is a private for-profit institution. Then trailing Bryan university closely behind, Lyon college follows with a female median debt of $8,250, furthering the disparity between male and female student loan debt.

Senior Financial aid analyst for Bryan university, Roe Ontizeros’ job is to help students at the university deal with their student loans and financial accounts at the school. But when asked about these discrepancies, Ontizeros said the best way to find that information is through their online data.

Due to privacy laws about student’s financial aid, financial aid analysts with universities do not have the ability to openly discuss the data unless it is already open to the public through databases funded by the federal government.

Chelsea Smythe,Financial Aid Analystfor the University of Arkansas, said she wasn’t sure why the disparity exists. “I do know that we don’t have the most loan debt in Arkansas,” Smythe said.

About 75 percent of students who graduated from private nonprofit colleges had an average loan debt of $32,300. Whereas, 88 percent of graduates from for-profit colleges had loans on an average debt of $39,950, according to the debt findings from College Score Card and Student Loan Hero.

Breaking down the data, women carry nearly two-thirds of the country’s outstanding student loan debt, according to a new report by the American Association of University Women, an education advocacy group titled, “Deeper in Debt: Women and Student Loans.” This study recognizes why certain demographics are targeted for higher loan interest rates above others.

Illuminating the details as to why loan companies target women so much, Lisa Corrigan, director at the University of Arkansas’ Gender Studies Program, explains how predatory lending is gendered.

“Women are recruited for for-profit degrees at higher rates than men, where they also default on their loans at a higher rate,” Corrigan said. “That’s particularly problematic for women of color, who are getting scammed into degrees with unaccredited programs or programs that have massive class action law suits because the students are not graduating or are not employable or that the programs collapse.

This data reveals an ongoing standard that women are paying significantly more than men. In growing awareness, the term “Pink Tax” has been consistently popping up on the internet. The phrase was coined to reflect how women tend to pay more in common material goods than men.

“I don’t know that it is theoretically wise to put debt itself into that. I think it’s useful to put them in conversation about the ways in which women are forced to pay more for services in goods that they’re entitled to and or that they need,” Corrigan said. “I think we want to make a difference because it is a service that the government is providing like higher education.”

Corrigan also said that data will eventually show that women of color are going to see a decrease in attendance at accredited universities.

“I think that higher education is collapsing. So eventually women are not going to get the chance to go to college. I think you’re probably the last generation of women who are going to have, what we might consider as wide access to education,” Corrigan said.

But Corrigan also thinks that specific demographics will not be affected by this restructuring. “White wealthy women will always have access to education. They’ve always had and always will. The entire political moment is restructuring power away from women of color, poor women of color and certainly LGBTQ+ people,” Corrigan said.

Offering advice for what could be described as the next steps to spread awareness about the student loan crisis, Corrigan said, “I would say to start with the white women because that’s your wheelhouse. Democracy is only as strong as its weakest member. So, if you want a strong and healthy community and you want strong and healthy families and you want a strong and healthy life then that means everyone in that community needs to be strong and healthy.”

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