ATHENS, Ga. --- The percentage of women on college campuses has increased for decades, but the trend might have finally hit a plateau, according to recently released U.S. Census Bureau figures.

In 2006, 55.7 percent of undergraduate students in the United States were women -- down slightly from a peak of 56.3 percent in 2005, according to the Census Bureau. In 1971, women made up just 42 percent of college undergraduates.

UGA statistics show a similar trend, from majority-male in the 1970s to a peak of nearly 58 percent women in 2003, when women outnumbered men in the UGA student body 19,566 to 14,312, according to UGA's Fact Book.

But since then, the ratio of women to men has changed little.

In 2007, women were 57.5 percent of UGA's enrollment, including undergraduate, graduate and professional students.

Even if the gender gap has stopped widening, the disparity remains a national problem, according to Tom Mortenson of the Pell Institute for Opportunity in Higher Education.

"The problem is, the boys just don't seem to get it," Mr. Mortenson said. "In my view, we have a strongly feminized educational system. Boys tend to be wiggly and fidgety. In the social skills, the discipline they need, the girls sort of have an edge over the boys."

College campuses became more and more female not just because women got more access to college, but because men had good job opportunities even without a college degree, said UGA statistics professor Lynne Billard.

But those options for men, such as factory jobs, are disappearing, Mr. Mortenson said. He doesn't know why the gender gap has stopped widening, or even if the trend really has run its course, he added.

The male-female ratio makes little difference in many students' lives on campus, they say.

"I know that (a gap exists) as a fact, but it doesn't really make an impact. Just on a day-to-day basis, it seems like it's equal," said Camille Smith, a sophomore accounting major from Chickamauga.

B. Fisher notices, though, when he's walking down the sidewalk.

"It's almost always more enjoyable for the guys," Mr. Fisher said.

"I don't think it's significant enough to make much of a difference," said Chandler Coats, a sophomore from Stone Mountain.

"I think it affects the lives of women more than men," said third-year law student Dwayne Brown, who is black.