The National Science Foundation recently released its annual report on doctoral degree recipients in the United States. The annual Survey of Earned Doctorates reports that universities in the United States conferred 53,906 doctorates in 2014. Of these, 24,857, or 46.1 percent, were earned by women.
But there are many academic disciplines in which the gender gap in doctoral degrees is substantial. Here are some of the academic fields where women earn less than one third of all doctorates awarded:
- Latin American history: 32.9%
- Geophysics and seismology: 32.0%
- Astronomy: 31.9%
- Computational biology: 31.6%
- Bioinformatics: 31.4%
- Physical chemistry: 31.4%
- Theology: 31.2%
- Organic chemistry: 31.1%
- Philosophy/ethics 29.2%
- Theoretical chemistry: 29.1%
- Fishing and fisheries sciences: 28.8%
- Mathematics: 28.5%
- Finance: 27.1%
- Management information systems: 26.7%
- Astrophysics: 24.6%
- Wildlife/range management: 24.1%
- Music theory 23.1%
- Engineering: 22.8%
- Physics: 18.9%
- Computer science: 17.9%
- Robotics: 9.9%
In contrast, there are a number of academic fields where women earned at least three quarters of all doctoral degree awards in 2014. Some examples include:
- Nursing: 92.2%
- Family and consumer science: 88.0%
- Special education: 83.7%
- Developmental psychology: 83.6%
- Gender and women’s studies: 82.9%
- Nutrition sciences: 81.7%
- Speech-language pathology: 80.7%
- Social work: 79.8%
- Art history: 78.6
- Health policy analysis: 78.0%
- Teacher education: 77.1%
- Clinical psychology: 76.5%
- Curriculum and instruction: 75.8%