WASHINGTON (AP) -- If women don't attend college it's usually because they can't. Debt, children, age and anxiety keep them away
But men who go straight from high school into the work force tend to do so because they were ``never that interested创 in college, according to a study released today by the American Association of University Women.
Of the 1,070 respondents to the group's national telephone survey, women were more likely than men not to attend college because of their credit-card debt or lack of scholarships and other college aid. Other barriers to college cited in the study were the need to care for children and lack of support from spouses.
Researchers call the results evidence of the newest career track metaphor: ``the spiral.创 ``The spiral captures the likelihood that women will move in and out of formal education ... by choice or necessity,创 said AAUW President Maggie Ford.
The respondents, questioned in December 1998 and January 1999, represented three groups: high school to work, high school to college, and work to college. The margin of error is plus or minus 5 percentage points. Women already in the work force were also six times more likely than their male counterparts to think they were too old (18 percent of women to 3 percent of men), even though over half of current first-time college enrollees are over 18. Men, unlike women, the researchers said, based their decisions more on choice than need.
Of the respondents who went from high school to work, 85 percent of men said the move was ``basically their own choice,创 compared with 71 percent of women. And 26 percent of men said they were not that interested in college, compared with 15 percent of women. Men were more likely than women to believe they could fare well without college degrees. And men were more positive about the work they were doing: 51 percent called what they were doing a ``career创 rather than a ``job.创
Comparatively, 26 percent of women described their post-high school work as a ``career创 instead of a ``job.创
But women were more likely to go to college for ``personal enrichment创 and interesting careers than men, who were more interested in getting the credential of a diploma. Women also wanted more financial aid information, child care support from colleges and flexible class scheduling. The survey had a margin of error of 5 percentage points.
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New York Times c.1999
