Tertiary scholarships

The position of the Human Rights Commission on whether scholarships reserved for women only are still appropriate will be interesting.

Women now significantly out perform men in education. It isn’t even close.

The research found that in 2006, 63 per cent of bachelors degrees went to women and 37% to men. While around 38% of New Zealand women were now finishing tertiary education, only 28 per cent of men did the same.

This is a massive imbalance – women out number men by more than 3:2 in the degrees stake.

NZUSA national woman’s representative Analiese Jackson said it was too early to start withdrawing support for women. “Women have only been able to participate in the numbers that they have now because of these scholarships.”

First of all it is nonsense to claim the scholarships have been critical in getting to the level fo women’s participation we have today. Societal changes have been the far far larger factor.

Some people do not like affirmative action type policies at all. Others like me can be supportive of it when there is a problem that needs addressing. I think many programmes go too far, but I think some can be productive.

However this is a very different case. Not only are women no longer under-represented. They are leaving the men for dead. The whole purpose of pushing for equality is to know when you have achieved your goal. There are still issues for women in many areas of society, but tertiary education under-representation is not one of them.

If anything there is a case for male only scholarships!