Women Make Up a Disproportionate Share of Enrollments at For-Profit Postsecondary Schools

A new report from the U.S. Department of Education offers data on enrollments at for-profit postsecondary educational institutions. The report shows that women make up 57 percent of all undergraduate students in all postsecondary institutions combined.

But if we look only at four-year colleges and universities, we find that women are 57 percent of all students at private, nonprofit educational institutions and 54 percent of the students at state-operated schools. But women are 60 percent of the total enrollments at for-profit educational institutions.

At two-year colleges and schools, the gender gap is more pronounced. Women are 56 percent of all students at two-year, state-operated community colleges. But women are 66 percent of all students at two-year, for-profit colleges and schools and 76 percent of all students at schools that are for-profit but are for less than two years.