ABSTRACT
Researchers, journalists, and cultural analysts from many fields offer wide-ranging explanations for the causes of women's and men's varying commitments to and success in academia. The theoretical frameworks on which these analyses have been built often result in a baroque combination of neurobiological, socio-cultural, and structural debates. This chapter discusses the concept of patriarchal equilibrium as a theoretical framework for understanding how women's successes in higher education can be perceived as threats to the "natural" gender order, which are then countered by shifts in other institutional arenas, effectively diminishing or even nullifying the impact of educational successes. Essential to understanding these shifts is an exploration of Americans' sustained, yet oppositional beliefs: Schooling is a primary mechanism for creating social equity and schooling is an appropriate conveyor of accepted gender identity norms. As women have begun to equal and in many cases exceed men's college performance, the credentialist interpretation of degree-as-power may be used against them as the degree's status declines.
