Women have made up the majority of U.S. undergraduate populations since the 1980s and continue to go to college at higher rates than men, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.
Fred Pfursich, vice president of Admissions and Financial Aid, said this tends to be even more compounded at institutions like Whitworth that are small, private, Christian universities. It is not uncommon to see a ratio of 60 percent females to 40 percent males, he said.
"At schools roughly our size, we realize it's a challenge we all face to get a 50-50 split. We kind of realize that 50-50 is not necessarily the goal," Pfursich said. "We will probably always have more women than men. The goal is to keep the ratio from getting out of balance."
Pfursich said at Whitworth a 60-40 percent split for full-time matriculated day students would be considered out of balance. A healthy balance would be 55-45 percent split or closer, Pfursich said.
Whitworth made this balance a priority in its 2005-2010 strategic plan by including achieving and maintaining that ratio in the entering freshman class a benchmark.
This year's freshman class had a ratio of 53 percent females to 47 percent males, Pfursich said. The overall ratio for full-time matriculated day students is 54.2 percent female to 45.8 percent male, according to the Spring 2009 Tenth Day Enrollment Report.
"We feel pretty good about that ratio," Pfursich said. "We would be happy to maintain that."
The strategic plan also included an action step to develop specific recruiting materials and strategies directed toward male prospects to help even out the gender ratio.
Some universities create publications specifically targeted at students of different genders. Pfursich said Whitworth currently does not have the resources to do that.
"It's a road I haven't really wanted to go down," Pfursich said. "Philosophically, it would be difficult to craft those kinds of separate messages."
Pfursich said certain programs at Whitworth have attracted more males than females.
"There are certain things Whitworth offers that do attract males," Pfursich said. "They aren't new, but they have become more visible."
The number of physics majors at Whitworth has been growing despite national trends that suggest a decline in physics majors, Pfursich said.
"The growth here is explosive and that program tends to attract more males," Pfursich said. "I don't think that kind of growth would be reflected in a lot of other schools. It's exciting for us, especially as we are about to build a new science building."
In 2000, there were 28 physics majors. This year there are 98 and 85 percent of them are male, according to the report.
Pfursich highlighted economic and business majors as examples of programs whose growth has made them more visible, particularly as the departments became the School of Global Commerce and Management and developed a graduate program. The business management major is 66 percent male, according to the report.
Other majors like computer science and theology also have more males than females, Pfursich said. Computer science currently is 81 percent male and theology is 63 percent male, according to the report.
Growth in these departments reflects strong faculty and department reputations, Pfursich said.
Whitworth's other competitive area is athletics.
"We have, compared to some other schools like us, a really strong athletic program," Pfursich said.
Whitworth offers football which is not available at some peer institutions like Seattle Pacific University, George Fox University and Gonzaga University, Pfursich said. This provides a pull for both those who are interested in playing and those interested in watching the sport.
"Some students would still be here if we didn't have football, but others wouldn't," Pfursich said. "It gives us a leg up on schools that don't have football. If you look at those schools, they often have a much higher ratio of females-males compared to us."
The Admissions and Institutional Research offices of SPU and George Fox report wider gaps in their gender ratios. SPU, which does not have football, has a ratio of 63 percent females to 35 percent males. George Fox University, which also does not have football, has a ratio of 63 to 37 percent.
Gonzaga, on the other hand, has a strong NCAA Division I men's basketball program and has a gender ratio of 53 percent females to 47 percent males.
Pfursich said football gives Whitworth an edge in attracting male students.
"If we didn't have football, it would be even more challenging," Pfursich said.
Pfursich said the reason that more female students attend universities like Whitworth may be tied to parental concerns.
"This is a generalization, but in some cases it seems like there's less concern for sons about security and individual attention as well as the Christian environment," Pfursich said. "More parents with female students seem to see these things as important."
Contact Jasmine Linabary at jasmine.linabary@whitworthian.
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