Over the last half century there has been an increase in women in academia. This increase has created a gender gap - resulting in more women being enrolled in undergraduate programs than men. Up-to-date few studies have determined the impact or causes of the gender gap. The aim of our study is to determine the effects of the gender gap on men and women - specifically some causes of men's decrease in academia, secondly some causes for women's increase in academia. To this end, questionnaires were distributed throughout six Universities to male and female students, in General Education Classes. The questionnaire was entitled the Student Achievement Questionnaire which focused on the students' perceptions of their academic achievement in relation to their families, friends and communities. Our data set consists of 2403 participants, 870 men an 1533 women. Our results show that men tended to have a more negative attitude towards academia than women.