http://fortune.com/2017/05/24/women-student-loan-debt-study/

Women are now the majority on college campuses across the United States—representing 56% of all students enrolled as of fall 2016. And according to a new report, they're also shouldering the lion's share of the nation's student debt problem. A report by the American Association of University Women (AAUW) f ound that o n average, women hold $833 billion—or almost two-thirds—of the country’s $1.3-trillion student debt, compared to the $477 billion that men hold. Overall, after completing a bach­elor’s degree, women’s average accrued student debt is about $1,500 greater than men’s. African American women take on more student debt than any other group of women, with an average of $30,000. In the time period between one and four years after graduation, men paid off an average of 38% of their outstanding debt, while women paid off 31%, according to the study.

So, women have 65% of the college loan debt despite being 56% of college grads. Due to the college loan debt % being a lagging indicator and the 56% being a rising trend, that means that the lower bound is that the average female college graduate has 16% more debt than the average male college graduate (likely significantly higher since lots of college debt is old and women made up a smaller % of college graduates years ago).

What do you guys think are the primary drivers behind this? The article claims pay gap. I see 2 hypotheses

  1. Sociology, Art History, English etc don't pay like male dominated majors do (reframing of the pay gap)

  2. Men are more likely to see that college is a scam unless you're doing engineering/CS/something useful and drop out or not even bother