BY LAEL HINES | The New School, the private, progressive university located in Greenwich Village, has a baffling gender imbalance among its student body.
According to a recent report, all the various divisions of The New School had an average of 71.6 percent female students and 28.4 percent male students. According to the CollegeBoard publication, The New School’s Parsons School of Design even exceeds this existing imbalance, with 79 percent female students to 21 percent male students.
Ann Stoler, an anthropology professor at The New School, was reluctant to provide a clear reason for the higher figures for females on campus. She suggested that a potential cause for the sexual skewing is simply the academic nature of The New School itself.
“Here at The New School, we don’t offer sciences: biology, chemistry and physics,” she noted. “There is certainly a gender imbalance in the arts and sociology departments because they natural attract more women than men.”
Perhaps the environment of The New School also is simply more attractive to women. New York City has a reputation of endless opportunity and artistic expression. Fueled by the media, some women may gravitate to New York City for its reputation of potential glamour and “Carrie Bradshaw-esque” excitement. Kristen, a New School student, elaborated on this theory.
“It’s something about New York City as the liberal arts, they are just more feminine,” she said. “They’re more attractive to women, I think. I mean, in our program there will be like 50 women and two men.”
New York City itself has a gender imbalance. According to the 2010 census, there were 4,292,589 females living in New York City and 3,882,544 males. So, perhaps The New School’s sexual ratio is just a reflection of an increasingly feminine city.
