How about "because they need to AND can" (whereas the men might also need to, but cannot, there's not as much of a market).
While the opportunities are greater for women, men also get paid for sex (predominantly, though not exclusively, by other men.)
The solution to this apparent inequality is... hire/promote more women into executive roles.
Maybe they(equivalently poor men) are not and therefore choose not to study?
Men do study at a lower rate after all
a) Prices for accomodation have gone up a lot in the last few years. At my university in the south west, rental prices for off-campus accomodation have roughly doubled since I was studying a decade ago (and at the time they were one of the most expensive in the UK). Even with the maximum maintenance loan it would only just cover the cost of accomodation (assuming you only need to pay for term time).
2) The means-tested grants and loans expect higher earning parents to support their children at university, but a lot don't. I believe in this case your parents can make a written declaration that they won't support you, which allows you to get the full loan and grant, but this option isn't made clear.
3) A lot of people are just bad at managing finances, and spend money on things they don't really need. Schools really need some sort of financial education, but I guess it's too profitable to bankers for people to be educated on how to be sensible with their finances.
(also I think the whole subject is way off topic for HN, there isn't even a FOSTA angle)
I’ve known girls who have done sex work. Mostly smaller things like selling used clothes, or pretending to be into a guy for gifts, but a few who straight up were prostitutes. They always had a story of “having no other choice”. The reality every time (again, from those I knew. Not trying to generalize and claim I know them all) was that they weren’t “forced” into it at all. They just preferred that work because they made way more money than what they’d do working and it was easier. But they didn’t like the fact that sex work would negatively impact their future (jobs, relationships, etc), so they came up with victimhood stories to justify it. No idea if that’s what’s happening here, but if I had to wager money I’d wager it’s along those lines based on my experiences.
I see a few others in here mentioning that universities handle learning disabilities. I think if you’re so mentally disabled that you can’t hold a part time job, it’s probably not a great idea to invest 100k into a college education. I don’t know many jobs that require a college degree that are easier to succeed in than working for a min wage job at 10-20 hours a week. So sure, the universities are more accommodating. That’s because they want that 100k pot on your head. If the reality is you can’t hold down part time work for mental disability, I think we need to have yet another discussion on where the ethical line is for universities endenturing students futures for their short term financial gains.
It’s enormously tempting. Every freshman girl knows at UT that if she wants, there is a guy waiting to give her between $1,500 - $3,000 a month.
It’s spread into high schools now, usually either because teachers are found to be on the app or a rumor spreads through the school about a girl being on there.
It made The Daily Texan, the student newspaper of UT, a few months ago: http://dailytexanonline.com/2018/09/11/college-sugar-babies-...
There were major media stories about it in high schools...in the (early, IIRC) 00s. It's not somewhere it's spread since 2015.
So where does equality fit into this? I don’t think this phenomena is so rampant that double digit percentages of women are doing this (though I have no idea), so this whole thing probably isn’t that big of a deal. But honestly, if this entitles women to an easy and maybe even comfortable way of making big dollars in their youth/lack of talent, what will we do to enable young men to also pay for school/living/etc in their youth? I mean if I could send some self destructing photos to older women in college with no social/professional ramifications and make 1-3k a month, I would never have worked the shitty part time jobs I did. Doesn’t really seem like an egalitarian idea for half of the population to be able to take the easy path while the other toils away.
It's older generation who sold them lies and stole their future.
Another raindrop in the ocean of reasons, the youth are turning populist.
Also, how much money do you need for education in uk these days?
People look at risk vs reward.
Sex is no longer a tabbo and arguably it's the easiest and most natural work.
Incels will be infuriated at this.
Very soon we'll see news that top 1% sleep with 90% students.
