“Best”, “Worst” and gender divides

According to the Times Higher Education Supplement, The Daily Star wrote a guide to British Uni’s. The basis of their comparisons? Gender ratio and beer prices. Not only that but apparently the “best” was represented by the highest female to male ratio - i.e. where women outnumber men. And the “worst” was were men outnumber women. Now I’m all for women in Higher Education (after all it’s what I spend most days doing!), but because more women = greater chance at sex. Plus the Star’s idea either presumes that their readers are all male or that women at university are so undiscerning as to fall for men who chose university places on the basis of whether they will have more female or male peers.

The Star ignores that University entrants are now mostly female (according to UCAS 55% of University applicants and 54% of University entrants are now female - although The Times chose to represent this as risking “men free” universities). But this is still gendered with men outnumbering women in mathematical sciences, physical sciences, computer science (by almost 4:1), engineering (by more than 4:1) and architecture (data from UCAS and HESA)

Have your say

In order to keep this blog as a feminist and friendly space, comments will be subject to some rules. We do not seek to censor debate: the beauty of the internet is that anyone can set up their own blog or website to express their views.

  1. This blog is a safe and friendly space for feminists and feminist allies. Debate and critique are welcome where it is constructive and deepens analysis or understanding. Anti-feminist comments will not be approved. We get to decide what's anti-feminist.
  2. All comments must be approved by one of the bloggers. For this reason, there may be a delay before your comment appears.
  3. No sexist, racist, homophobic, transphobic, classist, ablist comments, comments which make personal attacks on any blogger or commenter, or comments that are otherwise deemed offensive by us will be posted.
  4. Trolls will be banned from commenting. We get to decide who is a troll.
  5. No anonymous comments - please feel free to use your real name or make one up, though.
  6. Be nice.

Please note that your email address will not be displayed on this website. All comments are checked, prior to being published on this site.

top ^

Latest Posts
New feature: Writing women back into punk
New feature: Painful vagina? Your poor husband!
Samira Ahmed, behind the scenes with C4 news
Hidden Herstories: Women of Change, see it for free!
New feature: Adventures in self-publishing
Talk/discussion: LGBTI Rights in Uganda, March 21 in Manchester
UN climate finance panel a boys' club
Greater Manchester Police failed DV victims, say IPCC
Christie Elan-Cane: Fighting for legal and social recognition outside the societal gender system
The Second Sex: lost in translation?
More posts
Latest Comments
Jess McCabe on UN climate finance panel a boys' club
Liz Stanton on UN climate finance panel a boys' club
Julie K on EWL photo competition
FeminaErecta on Oh, journalism...
Julie K on Oh, journalism...
Elmo on The Second Sex: lost in translation?
Kiki on International Women's Day, Million Women Rise, and trans inclusion
Lynne Miles on International Women's Day, Million Women Rise, and trans inclusion
Kiki on International Women's Day, Million Women Rise, and trans inclusion
Ally on Oh, journalism...
More feminist bloggers
There are plenty of fantastic UK feminist bloggers around. For a fantastic introduction to feminist blogging, go to the Carnival of Feminists website, which showcases the finest feminist posts from around the blogsphere, including many from UK blogs.
How to contribute to The F-Word
Got something to say? Something to review? News to discuss? Well we want to hear from you! Click here for more info
Events
Check out our events listings for info on some of the fantastic feminist events going on up and down the country. Please get in touch to tell us about events we've not listed yet.
Small Print
All blog posts are the views of the individual post author, and not those of The F-Word.

Inside this section

Blog Home
Archives by Month
March 2010
February 2010
January 2010
December 2009
November 2009
October 2009
September 2009
August 2009
July 2009
More Archives
Archives by Author
Abby O'Reilly
Amy Clare
Anne Onne
Barbara Felix
Bill Savage
Carrie Dunn
Catherine Redfern
Grace Fletcher-Hackwood
Guest Blogger
Helen G
Holly Combe
Jess McCabe
Joanna Whitehead
Jolene Tan
Josephine Tsui
Kate Smurthwaite
Kit Roskelly
Laura Woodhouse
Lola Adesioye
Louise Livesey
Lynne Miles
Milly Shaw
Philippa Willitts
Samara Ginsberg
Sokari Ekine
Sunny Hundal
Suzi FemAcadem
Syma Tariq
Yvonne Howard
zohra moosa
News prior to April 2005
XML feed Feeds
Latest Blog Posts
Latest Comments

Contact Us

This webpage lives at: http://www.thefword.org.uk/blog/2008/08/best_worst_and