This year Otago University has widened their gender options, and at the same it is reported that 60% of domestic students are female.
Whereas in the past students could choose female, male or X for indeterminate, students this year can identify as “gender diverse”, and, if they want to, specify whether they are a male or female, a transgender man, a transgender woman or non-binary transgender.
There is also the option of calling themselves Mx or Id in addition to the titles Mr, Mrs, Miss or Ms – and students can change their gender in their student details without having to provide any supporting paperwork.
So you can fairly freely choose how to identify your gender. Anyone who doesn’t like the new options doesn’t have to use them.
This looks like gender is getting complicated, but it is complicated for some people.
OUSA former queer support co-ordinator Hahna Briggs said she was “really happy” students could now use those options to express their identity.
“Students were able to change their gender marker after enrolment to M, F, or X (X for indeterminate) but they had to provide a statutory declaration or an updated passport to make this change. Now this process is so much easier”.
OUSA president for 2019 James Heath said the new university process was “in line with common practice”.
“From an OUSA perspective we welcome, and celebrate, openness with regards to gender diversity with a goal to make Otago the most inclusive campus in NZ.”
Feedback about the change from students online was very positive, describing the move as “awesome” and “fantastic”.
Most young people should be quite open and liberal about this – but there could be some complications regarding use of gender assigned facilities and qualification for gender separated sports.
Also from ODT: Uni women outnumber men 60:40
A gender studies specialist says the 60:40 split of female and male domestic students attending the University of Otago last year is part of a trend across most Western countries — though it might be slightly higher at Otago than at other universities due to the emphasis on health sciences.
Gender disparities were “subject-specific” and last year there was a slightly larger difference at Otago than usual, probably because of the role of health sciences at the university, Fairleigh Gilmour said.
Generally, men tended to outnumber women in engineering and IT, while women tended to dominate in health-related disciplines.
There are now many more female medical and dental students, but other health fields will lean even more heavily towards female numbers.
Statistics seemed similar at most other universities around the country for students. 2017 splits:
- Victoria University 55% female, 45% male (all students)
- Auckland University of Technology 61% female, 39% male (domestic students)
- University of Auckland 57% female , 43% male (all students)
- Massey University 60% female, 40% male
- University of Waikato 58% female, 42% male (all students)
One bucked the trend…
- Lincoln University 49% female, 51 male (all students)
…but that could reflect on the Lincoln specialising in agriculture.
Why are significantly more females going to university than males? It may in part be due to trade qualifications being done at polytechnics. More males may get into work without qualifications. And there could be more males unemployed or in other sorts of training.
But it is clear that as far as university education is concerned females are dominating the numbers.
Knowledge is power in a number of ways.