Boys vs. Girls

An Analysis of Katha Pollitt's "Girls Against Boys?" The article titled "Girls Against Boys," published in the 30 January issue of The Nation magazine by author Katha Pollitt, brings to light pressing issues of gender discrimination and how this nation's education system has changed over the past forty years but still isn't up to par with where it needs to be with issues of gender equality. Pollitt exposes the views of conservatives toward feminism in the school systems of today. This article describes how changes in society are taking place, and what the future may hold for men and women in the world of employment and education. Pollitt begins with the mention of equal-access admissions instituted in 1975 which leads into how the undergraduate gender gap has changed over the past forty years with girls edging ahead of boys. This statement implies that since the act was brought about, girls have had a better chance to get into colleges and have jumped on the opportunity. Pollitt then fires off some statistics where the women of today are 57 percent of the graduating college students, up 20 points from 1960, further backing up the fact that the number of women in college is continually growing. Pollitt points out that even Harvard's freshman class this year is made up of more girls than boys. The author then goes on to cite an article by John Tierney printed in a recent New York Times where Tierney states that "You could think of this [more women attending college] as a victory for women's rights, but many of the victors will end up celebrating alone." The previous quote leads the reader to believe that some people feel that this is an issue fought only by radical idealist women who do not have good relationships due to their views. The third paragraph exposes Polltt's feelings of conservatives like George Gilder in the National Review in which Guilder asks the question "Why would any self-respecting boy want to attend one of America's increasingly feminized