The Gender Gap in Graduate School Enrollments and Degree Attainments

A new report from the Council on Graduate Schools shows that in 2013 there were 1.7 million students enrolled in graduate education programs in the United States in 2013. This was down slightly from 2012. The report stated that first-time enrollments in graduate programs in the fall of 2013 stood at more than 459,000 students. This was up slightly from the previous year.

Among the first-time graduate students in 2013, women were 57.1 percent of the total. Women were 50.6 percent of the new enrollees in doctoral programs and 58.4 percent of new entrants in master’s degree programs.

Women made up 75 percent of all students in graduate programs in education and 78 percent of all students in the health sciences. In contrast, women were only 25 percent of the students entering graduate programs in engineering and 31 percent of the first-time graduate students in mathematics and computer science.

The report also reveals that during the 2012-13 academic year, women were awarded 307,597 master’s degrees at U.S. graduate schools. This was 59.2 percent of all master’s degrees awarded that year. Women earned 52.2 percent of the more than 70,000 doctorate degrees awarded.

The full report, Graduate Enrollment and Degrees, 2003 to 2013, may be downloaded by clicking here.