[The text below is an edited version of this Tomorrow’s World program.]

The New Gender Gap: Why Men Are Falling Behind

The mishandling of student protests over Israel’s war in Gaza brought about the resignation of three Ivy League University Presidents in 2023 and 2024:

• Liz Magill of the University of Pennsylvania
• Claudine Gay of Harvard
• Minouche Shafik of Columbia University

A fourth Ivy League President, Cornell’s Martha Pollack, also resigned, but said that she was considering stepping down prior to the protests.

Something that struck me at the time was that all four of these prestigious university presidents were women.

It surprised me how much women were taking over the ranks of university education.

For more perspective, not including interim presidents, the eight schools that make up the Ivy League have had 173 top leaders in their histories. And during their long and distinguished histories, it was not until 1977 when Yale’s Hannah Gray became the first female to hold that position in an Ivy League school. Maurie McInnis now holds that position.

But since Hannah Gray, the top positions have increasing gone to women—15 altogether. Why such a turnaround? What does it mean?

Women in Leadership: Where the Trend Begins

The western world has been male-dominated for centuries, but that began to change 30 to 40 years ago. And today, women are quickly ascending to top leadership positions as they surpass men in university enrollment and achievement. The idea that men should be the breadwinner and protector has been shattered, and that has changed how both men and women see themselves—and how they interact with one another.

Let’s look at the United States before turning to the U.K., Canada, and Australia. Here in the U.S.A.:

For decades, women have increasingly outpaced men in college attendance. In fact, the last year men outnumbered women in higher education was 1978. The pandemic served only to widen that chasm, and as of 2022, women constituted about 60% of college enrollments. Women are also more likely to earn their degrees. Men finish college within four years at a rate 10 percentage points behind the rate of women. (“Here’s What Students Should Know About Gender Inequity in Selective College Admissions, Ivy Coach, https://www.ivycoach.com/press/best-colleges/heres-what-students-should-...)

Now, to put that in perspective, think what that means on a practical level. For every 60 newly-enrolled university women, there are only 40 men. But this doesn’t tell the whole story.

College Enrollment: Men in Crisis?

It would be worse if it were not for universities lowering their standards for men, to maintain as close to a 50 percent balance between the two as they can.

So colleges have a “men problem.” As such, to manifest a more equal gender balance on campus, some colleges favor male applicants. Simply being male can amount to a “thumb on the scale for men,’” a 2023 New York Times Magazine exposé revealed (ibid).

The New York Times article referred to here is titled, “There Was Definitely a Thumb on the Scale to Get Boys,” with the subhead was:

Declining male enrollment has led many colleges to adopt an unofficial policy: affirmative action for men. (“There Was Definitely a Thumb on the Scale to Get Boys; The New York Times; Sept. 8, 2023).

What is the practical effect of doing this?

Affirmative action, while favoring one class of people, inherently disfavors another class. In this effort to bring about parity between the sexes, universities openly favor academically marginal boys and pass over and deny many highly qualified girls. While there will always be room somewhere for highly qualified candidates, this will mean missing out on scholarships or the university of one’s choice for some.

What about other countries? Is the United States alone in seeing this trend in higher education? Sadly, the answer is no. In Canada, women outnumber men in university enrollment in nearly every discipline other than architecture, engineering, mathematics, and computer and information sciences. Overall, women in Canadian universities make up about 57% of enrollees compared to 43 percent for men (“Number of students enrolled in postsecondary institutions in Canada from 2000 to 2024, by gender;” Statista.com; Aug. 5, 2026).

A similar trend is seen in the United Kingdom, where it varies a bit from year to year, but between 2011 and 2024, enrollment has held steadily in favor of women—fluctuating between 55% and 58% women (“Student characteristics data: population data—key findings;” Office for Students–UK; Oct. 9, 2025).

And the disparity in Australia is even worse. In 2024, the difference between domestic female students beginning university life rose to a shocking 62%, with males making up a mere 38% (“Key findings from the 2024 Higher Education Student Statistics - Department of Education, Australian Government).

This cannot be good for men, nor is it good for women in the long-term.

How the Role Reversal Happened

But what does this mean in practical terms?

Most men are still working, and not every job needs a university education. However, when it comes to leadership positions in the media, government, and the corporate board room, a university degree does make a difference.

We still hear a lot about the corporate glass ceiling, but as shown at the beginning of this program, when it comes to the top positions in academia, that ceiling has been shattered over the last two to three decades.

Now let’s look at what university enrollment tells us about where our western world is heading.

The professions are increasingly being taken over by women. For example,

15 of the top 20 law schools (as ranked by U.S. News & World Report) in 2025 had more female attendees than male attendees (“Law School Rankings by Female Enrollment (2025);” Enjuris.com).

When it comes to future veterinarians, women make up 80% of veterinary school students. More women than men are graduating from dental school and now lead in 9 of 14 dental disciplines.

The same is true in medicine.

What’s more, according to previously released data from the AAMC, in 2023-24 women accounted for 54.6% of medical school students, after having become a majority for the first time in 2019-20 (“Women in medicine make gains, but obstacles remain,” Academic Medicine, July 9, 2024).

Now what does this mean?

Whether for leaders in law, the veterinary profession, dentistry, healthcare, or any other profession requiring higher education, it gives us a snapshot of our future.

”The increasing presence of women in medical school is a fundamental reason for their growing presence in teaching and leadership,” notes Diana Lautenberger, director of gender equity initiatives at the AAMC.
“If the majority of medical school students and graduates are women, it bears out later along the [career] pathway, through faculty and leadership, that there will be more women,” she says (ibid).

While there were pioneers leading to this trend going back two or three centuries, most of the change has taken place within the last 30 to 40 years. Why? How did this sudden reversal of roles happen? And what is behind it?

One Flawed Study Changed Everything

There was a turning point in the United States with the release of a document that dramatically changed how children are educated in the United States, and the general effect has been felt elsewhere.

The late child psychologist, Dr. James Dobson, explained how a single document has had a profound effect on education in America. It was titled “How Schools Shortchange Girls.”

This hostility [against boys and in favor of girls] found its manifesto in an inaccurate and terribly biased report written and released in 1992 by the ultraliberal American Association of University Women (AAUW).… It asserted that female students are invisible, ignored, disrespected, and denied their share of educational resources (Dobson, Bringing Up Boys, p. 172).

Now I still remember hearing about this. It was a big deal at the time, but it has dramatically changed our world. Dr. Dobson continues:

The most widely disseminated finding was that teachers permit boys to speak or participate eight times more often than they do girls, but as with the rest of the conclusions, this turned out to be pure nonsense. Their data was based on an old 1981 study that actually said boys are reprimanded eight times more often than girls, and that three-fourths of both girls and boys said they thought teachers compliment girls more often, think they are smarter, and would rather be around female students (ibid).

According to Dobson:

Although the report has been widely discredited now in the professional community for what it was—a blatant attempt to skew education resources away from boys and to characterize girls as victims—the damage had been done (ibid, p. 172).

The report was received with enthusiasm by academia, the media, and governments at all levels. It paved the way for the Gender Equity in Education Act (GEEA), funneling prodigious amounts of taxpayer dollars toward girls’ education—at the expense of boys. While the large disparities between boys and girls in education cannot be laid totally at the feet of the GEEA, it markedly changed the approach in education, and the result has been dramatic and tragic for both boys and girls.

The Prophecy Happening Right Now | Isaiah 3:12

Regardless of the causes, and there is not a single cause, what we see today is the fulfillment of a prophecy made more than 2,700 years ago unfolding before our eyes.

The biblical prophet Isaiah was addressing conditions during his day, but as with much of Bible prophecy, there is duality—an early fulfillment and a later end-time fulfillment. It is also important to note that Isaiah’s audience goes well beyond the Jews, and it involves the so-called lost ten tribes of Israel at the end of the age. Not surprisingly, his prophecies accurately describe what we are seeing today.

As for My people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them. O My people! Those who lead you cause you to err, and destroy the way of your paths (Isaiah 3:12).

The disparity between men and women in university enrollment points to a future ruled by women. They may not be there yet, but the signs of the near-term future are all there for anyone with eyes to see.

The Hidden Costs for Men, Women—and Children

Many applaud this turnaround in American and western culture favoring women, thinking “It’s about time!” But is the trend we see truly good for either men or women? Perhaps you have heard the often-repeated warning: Be careful what you wish for.

Marjorie Hass, President of the Council of Independent Colleges, looks past the war of the sexes and puts it succinctly.

It’s typically not good for society when young men feel they don’t have a future (“There Was Definitely a Thumb on the Scale to Get Boys;” The New York Times; Sept. 8, 2023).

A female-dominated education system that begins early in a child’s life has outwardly benefitted women over the last several decades, but not all are rewarded according to their efforts. Universities recognize the need to have some form of male-female parity in enrollment. In addition to a host of other problems, the fear is that if the disparity is too great, university education will be seen by men as a feminine pursuit, and the bottom will drop out of male enrollment. Brookings Institute’s Richard Reeves points out:

“That notion would be hard to reverse” (ibid).

That will in turn lessen female enrollment and dry up tuition revenue—and worse yet for the colleges, endowments.

But there are far worse effects on society than loss of endowments. These statistics bring with them consequences for society. Marriage rates are already at historic lows, and birth rates are dropping nearly everywhere. Single-parent homes are on the rise, and this has ramifications for children.

In addition to admissions disadvantaging highly qualified girls, there are also men and women who recognize that too great a disparity has social and cultural consequences. How men and women interact, such as in dating to get to know one another, has long since gone away.

Emma Roberts, who graduated from Tulane in the spring, told me she discussed the problem in her gender studies class. “I think everyone’s consensus we came to was that it’s pretty disgusting trying to date,” she says. “Because the reality is you’re not likely going to find someone that wants to date you” (“There Was Definitely a Thumb on the Scale to Get Boys;” The New York Times; Sept. 8, 2023).

Emma did not mean that men are not interested in women. Many still are, but not in the way women hope they would be.

In the 2015 book, Date-onomics, business reporter Jon Birger builds the case that hookup culture has become the norm on almost all college campuses, largely because the gender ratio is so skewed. In a world in which straight men are scarce, he maintains, they control the terms of social life (ibid).

A hookup culture is the result of more just than the ratio of men and women on campuses, but it does leave young women with fewer options and a sense that they have to compromise their values and settle for less. As the author of The New York Times article wrote about a discussion she had with three young ladies:

The young women were older and wiser than when they started, ready to head into the world with the economic advantages that are associated with a bachelor’s degree. But for all their achievements, they also left feeling—to use a word they all agreed on—“humbled” (ibid).

What does a hookup culture do for male-female relations, and by extension marriage and family? Given a choice, do single men or single women really want to marry someone who has hooked up with ten, 20, or 30, or more former friends and strangers? How special is that person?

Our TomorrowsWorld.org website has a feature titled News and Prophecy. We published a piece earlier this year, headlined “The Impact of Happy Marriage on Health?” In it we wrote:

Building a happy and successful marriage takes work, time, and intentionality. It is not easy—especially in a world whose “god,” the Devil, is bent on destroying this God-ordained institution (2 Corinthians 4:4)—but when God gives a command, He does so to bless and not to punish us. With this in mind, it should come as no surprise that studies show happy marriages resulting in improved mental and physical health for both husbands and wives. Recent research shows that couples in happy marriages “have a lower incidence of cardiovascular disease, including heart attacks, stroke and death from heart disease, compared with those who are unmarried” (Washington Post, June 2, 2026). The happily married also have better overall mental health and even a reduced risk of cancer. Those who work to keep their marriages happy create an environment that positively impacts their moods, attitudes, habits, and even immune systems.

God intended the marriage relationship to be an institution of joy and stability, a place to raise happy and balanced children who can reach their full God-given potential. Sadly, that is too often now what we see today.

Why Deborah in the Bible Took the Lead—Reluctantly

One of the most chaotic, violent, and lawless times in the history of Israel is that which is recorded in the book of Judges. The last verse of the book sums up the problem this way.

In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes (Judges 21:25).

Yet, it is in the context of this turbulent time that we read a beautiful passage of what it takes to bring about harmony.

When leaders lead in Israel, when the people willingly offer themselves, bless the LORD! (Judges 5:2).

Yes, those in charge must lead and others must willingly follow that leadership, but what is the context of this specific passage?

Northern Israel had fallen into sin and was ruled over by a foreign power. A woman by the name of Deborah was judging (or ruling) at that time, and she called for a man by the name of Barak to deploy troops and fight off their enslaving enemy. His response to her command was timid at best.

And Barak said to her, “If you will go with me, then I will go; but if you will not go with me, I will not go!” (Judges 4:8).

In essence, he said in so many words, “I’ll go if you hold my hand.”

Now this is hardly the response one might expect from a man. God gave Israel the victory, but the glory would go to Deborah and to a woman who killed their enemy’s leader. It is evident that men were not stepping up to lead as they should have—and it is also evident that women are capable of filling the gap during such times. But was this the way God intended it to be?

It is estimated that women make up 70% to 75% of Human Resource departments, and their thumbs are on the DEI scales. Many say, “Well, it’s about time!” However, there are both men and women who see trouble on the horizon. As education has focused on girls, boys are being left behind, and this is not in women’s long-term best interest.

Anyone with eyes to see knows that men and women are different. A man will never experience the joy of a child being formed within him. Few women are capable of carrying a full-grown adult out of a burning building.

God made both sexes with strengths and weaknesses, and to deny our unique qualities is to deny reality.

God did not create men and women to be in competition with one another, but to work in harmony as He designed us.

In this next video, you’ll find God’s purpose and role for men clearly defined—NOT by our modern world that believes masculinity is toxic.

No, as quoted earlier by Marjorie Hass, President of the Council of Independent:

“It’s typically not good for society when young men feel they don’t have a future.”

Rather, the answer lies in understanding what the Bible reveals. God has a very special future for both men and women—and a clear role using the strengths that the Creator designed them to have.

Watch this next video and see for yourself how men work together with women to succeed as God intends—in marriage, in following Jesus Christ’s example, and in leading a more fulfilling life.