The Gender Gap Among Degree Recipients in Humanities Disciplines

The American Academy of Arts and Sciences has issued a new report on the demographics of associate degree recipients in the humanities. The report found that in 2015, women earned 61.7 percent of all associate’s degrees in humanities fields. This is very similar to the percentage of women among all associate’s degree recipients. The report also notes that the percentage of women among associate’s degree recipients in the humanities has remained largely unchanged since 1989.

An earlier report found that in 2015 women made up 61 percent of all recipients of bachelor’s degrees in the humanities. This was four percentage points higher than women’s share of all bachelor’s degrees. From 1987 to 2015, the percentage of women among all bachelor’s degree recipients in the humanities ranged from a low of 58 percent in 1995 to a high of 62 percent near the turn of the century.

Among particular humanities disciplines, women had the highest percentage of bachelor’s degree in languages and literatures other than English (70%), while philosophy had the lowest percentage of women degree recipients (32%). In history, women earned 40 percent of all bachelor’s degrees.