Women Hold Nearly Two-Thirds Of America’s Student Loan Debt
And it takes them way longer to pay it off.
>Are you a college-educated woman who is being buried under a pile of student loan debt that devours your paychecks and gives you heart palpitations at 2:30 a.m.? Well, take heart — at least you’re not alone! According to a depressing new report released this week by the American Association of University Women, women hold nearly two-thirds of this country’s student debt ― or a whopping $833 billion in outstanding loans. (And that’s probably a low-ball estimate, because the report doesn’t capture women who enroll and take on a whole lot of debt but don’t graduate.)
>Oh, and female graduates also have a significantly harder time paying those loans offf ― making it clear that the student loan crisis is now most definitely a women’s issue. “Time spent in college now sometimes means unmanageable student debt that drags down those seeking greater opportunity, especially low-income women, women of color, and women who drop out before completing a degree or credential,” Patricia Fae Hoe, board chair of the AAUW ― an advocacy and research group ― wrote in a forward to the report.
>So why are women hit hardest by student loan debt? First, it’s because women are simply more likely to go to college. In 2016, 56 percent of people enrolled in colleges and universities were women. But women also tend to take on larger loans to finance that education. “In a given year about 44 percent of women enrolled in undergraduate programs take out loans compared to 39 percent of men,” the report says. “Women enrolled in undergraduate programs take on an average of about $3,100 in student loans per year—about $400 more than the average man. By graduation the typical woman receiving a bachelor’s degree in 2011-12 had an average of about $21,000 in student loans, $1,500 more than the typical man.”
Still think letting women into colleges and universities en masse was a good idea? All that student loan debt is causing women to vote for parties that want to have more government funding (read: male taxpayer funding) for higher education. And by pure coincidence these parties also want to pozz up your country with more 3rd world immigrants. Isn't that just great?
Since it takes them longer to pay off their student loans, it'll also take them about 10-20 years longer than men to actually start financially contributing to state and the economy (if they go into the private sector at all, of course).