History Main / HigherEducationIsForWomen

* ''Franchise/WonderWoman'': Back in the Golden Age of Comics Diana's supporting cast was mostly made up of men who'd joined the military straight out of high school like ComicBook/SteveTrevor and women who were in college (specifically Holldiay College), had gone to college, or had gotten a job straight out of high school so their young sister(s) could go to college.

* ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverseFuture '' inverts this when The Suspects [[TheFellowshipHasEnded decide to disband]] to pursue their own interests. Buck is the only one who’s pursuing postsecondary education because he wants to be a doctor. Jenny, meanwhile, has started her own online phone case business and Sadie and Sour Cream remain in the music industry; Sadie becomes a solo music artist and continues her life on tour with her lover Shep while Sour Cream moves to Empire City because he has become a popular DJ there.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Daria}}'' is almost a case of GraduationForEveryone (in Daria's grade), with everyone off to college. The exception is [[DumbJock Kevin]], who winds up flunking even as his girlfriend [[DumbBlonde Brittany]], none too bright herself, is accepted to exactly one college, which is noted for having [[TheCheerleader one of the country's best cheerleading squads]].

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Daria}}'' is almost a case of GraduationForEveryone (in Daria's grade), but [[DumbJock Kevin]] winds up flunking even as his girlfriend [[DumbBlonde Brittany]], none too bright herself, is accepted to exactly one college, which is noted for having [[TheCheerleader one of the country's best cheerleading squads]].

** It's not just college either, it's grad school and professional programs. Women have earned more PhDs than men every year since 2008. There are now more women than men in law school (since 2016) and medical school (since 2017). Women make up 80% of attendees in veterinary school and over 60 % of attendees of pharmacy in school. Pharmacy, in particular, is considered to be the best career choice for women due to its high pay and the possibility for flexible hours. You can work part-time and still make good money or you can also work from 6-2 and be off by the time your kids get home from school. The gender wage gap (which largely comes from women still bearing the brunt of childcare) is negligible between men and women pharmacists.

* On The Chalk, in the ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' novels, education full-stop is for women; it's generally agreed that it's useful for the girls to visit the Wandering Teachers when they arrive to learn reading and arithmetic (which are, after all, useful for running a household), but there's no sense in the boys filling their heads with stuff. This may have changed with the building of a permanent schoolhouse in ''Discworld/IShallWearMidnight''.

* ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverseFuture '' inverts this when The Suspects [[TheFellowshipHasEnded decide to disband]] to pursue their own interests. Bill is the only one who’s pursuing postsecondary education because he wants to be a doctor. Jenny, meanwhile, has started her own online phone case business and Sadie and Sour Cream remain in the music industry; Sadie becomes a solo music artist and continues her life on tour with her lover Shep while Sour Cream moves to Empire City because he has become a popular DJ there.

This is an EvolvingTrope as society changes -- a couple of generations ago, the gender ratio would have been reversed; and as late as the 1970s, young women attending further education would have been stereotyped as [[MrsDegree looking out for potential husbands]]. Currently, the sex ratio in universities is lopsidedly female, but there are often differences in the gender percentage of individual majors - the STEM fields (physical sciences, technology, and engineering fields) are more often that not a [[ChromosomeCasting sausage fest]], but women tend to dominate life sciences and humanities. For further analysis of the gender breakdown in scientific study, compare HardOnSoftScience.

This is an EvolvingTrope as society changes -- a couple of generations ago, the gender ratio would have been reversed; and as late as the 1970s, young women attending further education would have been stereotyped as [[MrsDegree looking out for potential husbands]]. Currently, the sex ratio in universities is lopsidedly female, but there are differences in the majors with men dominating the physical sciences, technology, and engineering fields but women dominating life sciences and humanities.

When a cast of teenage characters graduate from HighSchool, the girls are more likely to go to university while the boys are more likely to either get a job straight out of the gate, join the military, or at least decide that university is not for them (sometimes briefly attending before dropping out). While there is a RealLife gender split when it comes to higher education -- that is to say, proportionally more women go to university -- in fiction, this trend can come across as heavily exaggerated.

This is an EvolvingTrope as society changes -- a couple of generations ago, the gender ratio would have been reversed; and as late as the 1970s, young women attending further education would have been stereotyped as [[MrsDegree looking out for potential husbands]]. Currently, the sex ratio in universities is lopsidedly female, but there are differences in the majors with men dominating the physical sciences, technology, and engineering fields but women dominating life sciences and humanities.

* Practically an EnforcedTrope in UsefulNotes/{{Singapore}}, as by law, almost every 16-year old Singaporean male or man who's finished his pre-university education has to [[SingaporeansWithStealthFrigates enlist in the army for about 2 years]], meaning that girls who graduated from the HighSchool equivalent in the same year as the boys are two years ahead by the time they're out of the army.

* ''Literature/HarryPotter'': According to WordOfGod, Hermione was the only member of the trio to go back to Hogwarts to finish her education after ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows Deathly Hallows]]''. In Harry's case, it was justified; he wanted to continue his studies so he could become an Auror, but Kingsley allowed him to join their ranks immediately after the final battle, making school redundant.

* Averted with ''Franchise/SailorMoon''. Only three of the main characters have ambitions that actually require a university degree and TheOneGuy is one of them: Mamoru and Ami want to be doctors and Setsuna is a physics major at university. Male BookDumb characters in the fanchise are a rarity.

[[folder: Anime and Manga ]]

[[folder: Film ]]

[[folder: Literature ]]

[[folder: Live Action Television ]]

[[folder: Western Animation ]]

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'':
** Flashback episode "That '90s Show" revealed Marge went to college after high school while Homer formed a grunge band.
** A very realistic flash-forward shows Maggie and Lisa at college while Bart works a blue-collar job.
** "Lisa the Simpson" [[ExaggeratedTrope took this to the logical extreme]]: Almost every woman in the extended Simpson family (aunts, nieces, cousins, etc.) had graduated from college, as well as being successful in their careers. Almost every man, however...didn't. Bart and Homer, upon learning this, simply shrug their shoulders and join their uncles, nephews, and cousins in a head-butting contest.
*** This apparently because there is a hereditary gene for extreme stupidity in the Simpson family that only carries down the Y-chromosome, meaning all Simpson males are doomed to be idiots at birth.
** Played with in "Holidays of Future Passed" where the family photographs revealed that Bart and Lisa went to college while Maggie had either dropped out or didn't make it to college. Soon Bart was a college dropout while Maggie became a famous rock star.
* As part of their overachiever/underachiever dynamic, ''WesternAnimation/KimPossible'' receives a mountain of college offers as she nears the end of high school, while her sidekick and boyfriend Ron is left going begging. This becomes a plot issue in the GrandFinale, as he comes to believe she will (or should) shoot away into a stellar future and leave him in the dirt.

[[folder: Video Games ]]

* In ''VideoGame/SwordOfTheStars'', Tarka culture is very prejudiced against males in positions of higher education. This is due to the belief that their male hormones makes them too irrational and emotional to do well at it. Most positions that require long education are instead filled by females, with males being more involved in the military and lower-education jobs.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Web Comics ]]

[[folder: Real Life ]]

->''"Girls go to college to get more knowledge. Boys go to [[SpaceDoesNotWorkThatWay Jupiter]] to get [[DoesNotLikeMen more stupider]]!"''

-->--'''Children's rhyme'''

** This is the case in much of the Islamic world, really. At least in the countries where women are allowed education.

In part this seems to stem from GirlsNeedRoleModels (which means most girls in a high school setting will be good students) and the tendency for boys to be portrayed as BookDumb.

This is an EvolvingTrope as society changes -- a couple of generations ago, the gender ratio would have been reversed; and as late as the 1970s, young women attending further education would have been stereotyped as [[MrsDegree looking out for potential husbands]]. Currently, the sex ratio in universities is lopsidedly female, but there are differences in the majors with men dominating the STEM[[labelnote:+]] (physical sciences, technology, engineering, medical)[[/labelnote]] fields but women dominating life sciences and humanities.

* ''Franchise/PowerRangers'': The number of confirmed female college-goers/females with doctorates far outnumbers the males. Compared [[Series/PowerRangersTurbo Katherine Hillard]], [[Series/PowerRangersLightspeedRescue Dana Mitchell, Angela Fairwather]], [[Series/PowerRangersWildForce Alyssa Enrile]], [[Series/PowerRangersDinoThunder Hayley Ziktor]], [[Series/PowerRangersSPD Kat Manx]], [[Series/PowerRangersOperationOverdrive Rose Ortiz]], [[Series/PowerRangersRPM Dr. K]] and [[Series/PowerRangersSamurai Mia Watanabe]] who were all confirmed to either have a higher education, or were explicitly being shipped off to it in the epilogue, to [[Series/PowerRangersDinoThunder Tommy Oliver]] and [[Series/PowerRangersOperationOverdrive Andrew Hartford]] as two of the few male characters to attend college.

* ''Series/GilmoreGirls'': Rory Gilmore (page image) and Paris Geller were both accepted into numerous Ivy League schools and Lane also attended college. Meanwhile neither of Rory's ex-boyfriends considered carrying on serious study: Dean dropped out of community college and Jess didn't even graduate high school. Logan did attend college but only because his father forced him to and spent most of his time partying.
* The issue of college being considered unmanly (see RealLife), was {{Discussed|Trope}} in an episode of ''Series/ParksAndRecreation'':

This is an EvolvingTrope as society changes -- a couple of generations ago, the gender ratio would have been reversed; and as late as the 1970s, young women attending further education would have been stereotyped as [[MrsDegree looking out for potential husbands]]. Currently, the sex ratio in universities is lopsidedly female, but there are differences in the majors with men dominating the STEM[[labelnote:†]] (physical sciences, technology, engineering, medical)[[/labelnote]] fields but women dominating life sciences and humanities.

[[AC:{{Anime}} and {{Manga}}]]

[[AC:{{Film}}]]

[[AC:{{Literature}}]]
* In ''Literature/ABrothersPrice'', education is for women. Jerin's ability to read and write is highly unusual ... not to mention his ability to read thieves' cant. He meets Cullen, whose cousin tries to teach him how to read and write, but Cullen isn't a good pupil as he considers it as waste of time.

[[AC:LiveActionTelevision]]

[[AC: WesternAnimation]]

[[AC: VideoGames]]

[[AC:WebComics]]

[[AC: RealLife]]

* ''Literature/HarryPotter'': According to WordOfGod, Hermione was the only member of the trio to go back to Hogwarts to finish her education after ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows Deathly Hallows]]''. In Harry's case it was justified as he wanted to continue his studies so he could become an Auror. However, Kingsley allowed him to join their ranks immediately after the final battle, making school redundant.