I really loved that Times article about girls out performing boys at colleges. It stayed away from giving one definitive answer for this phenomenon and hit upon all the different explainations that have been floating about. One reason that girls are doing so well saddened me a bit:

“Most college women want a high-powered career that they are passionate about,” Ms. Smyers said. “But they also want a family, and that probably means taking time off, and making dinner. I’m rushing through here, taking the most credits you can take without paying extra, because I want to do some amazing things, and establish myself as a career woman, before I settle down.”

I expected that the next generation would have the family and work thing figured out better than we do. I expected that more guys would spend time thinking about how to balance their responsibilities as a parent with their work obligations.

It seems that college girls are more aware than I was of the difficulties of combining ambition with family, but their answer is to work harder and more strategically, which I guess is somewhat an improvement, but an unsatisfying one. It’s sad that girls are forced to be serious so early. And it seems that boys are still not planning for parenthood, despite the strides by guys in our generation.