Women Are Closing the Gender Gap in Doctoral Awards

Thirty years ago women earned less than one third of all doctoral degrees awarded by U.S. universities. In 2009, the latest year complete data is available, women earned 23,190 doctorates. That was 46.8 percent of all doctoral degrees awarded in 2009.  That year women earned more doctorates than men in the life sciences, the humanities, the social sciences, and education.

In 2009 women earned less than one third of all doctorates in the physical sciences and only one fifth of all doctorates in engineering.