Outcomes don't matter as much as expectations WRT planning and higher ed is all about planning far in the future. There's no "just in time" higher education economic model LOL.
In my state, where $20/hr buys you a pretty nice lifestyle, union building trades ALL pay $30 to low forties per hour and are essentially sausagefests WRT being "boys future jobs" and these jobs pay you around half pay to learn as an apprentice for a couple years, and require absolutely no college or student loans. A "journeyman" experience level "girls future jobs" such as day care worker, which is 99% female employment, pays $13.64/hr average in my state at that experience level and absolutely requires either a K12 ed degree (we produce twice as many degree holders as we have jobs, so optimistically the "bottom half" of degreed teachers end up as bartenders, day care, real estate saleswomen, etc). There is an associates degree program in early childhood education at my local tech school so young women can pay about $10K plus room and board and food, to eventually get a job that might eventually pay as much as $25K/year.
Like I wrote, most kids plans fall apart upon contact with reality much like the famous military aphorism about military plans not surviving contact with the enemy. However, the situation boils down to boys "know" they can get a great high paying career in the manly manual labor fields without a degree, whereas women "know" they need a degree and immense levels of debt to make less than McDonalds is willing to pay them, although at least their job is to literally hug babies all day. Maybe half the boys can't actually work construction due to drug use or weakness or just plain old laziness, but when they were planning they "knew" they could get those jobs. Whereas women know that even to change diapers for less than fast food pay, they "knew" they need a degree to compete.
The real story is very low paying, very low functioning jobs defined as "for women", require degrees and the supply/demand curve is such that they get away with it and the women hired will show up with expensive degrees and lifetime debt. Men's jobs that don't require degrees do not get away with demanding degrees.
In my state, where $20/hr buys you a pretty nice lifestyle, union building trades ALL pay $30 to low forties per hour and are essentially sausagefests WRT being "boys future jobs" and these jobs pay you around half pay to learn as an apprentice for a couple years, and require absolutely no college or student loans. A "journeyman" experience level "girls future jobs" such as day care worker, which is 99% female employment, pays $13.64/hr average in my state at that experience level and absolutely requires either a K12 ed degree (we produce twice as many degree holders as we have jobs, so optimistically the "bottom half" of degreed teachers end up as bartenders, day care, real estate saleswomen, etc). There is an associates degree program in early childhood education at my local tech school so young women can pay about $10K plus room and board and food, to eventually get a job that might eventually pay as much as $25K/year.
Like I wrote, most kids plans fall apart upon contact with reality much like the famous military aphorism about military plans not surviving contact with the enemy. However, the situation boils down to boys "know" they can get a great high paying career in the manly manual labor fields without a degree, whereas women "know" they need a degree and immense levels of debt to make less than McDonalds is willing to pay them, although at least their job is to literally hug babies all day. Maybe half the boys can't actually work construction due to drug use or weakness or just plain old laziness, but when they were planning they "knew" they could get those jobs. Whereas women know that even to change diapers for less than fast food pay, they "knew" they need a degree to compete.
The real story is very low paying, very low functioning jobs defined as "for women", require degrees and the supply/demand curve is such that they get away with it and the women hired will show up with expensive degrees and lifetime debt. Men's jobs that don't require degrees do not get away with demanding degrees.