The Wide Gender Gap in Doctoral Degree Awards in Specific Academic Disciplines

Last week, a WIAReport post showed that the number of doctorate degrees awarded to American women at U.S. universities declined for the third year in a row. Women made up a small majority of all U.S. citizens or permanent residents who earned doctorates in 2020.

But when we look at doctorate degree awards in specific disciplines, we find that the overall numbers hide a continuing wide gender gap in many specific disciplines. Data for the annual Survey of Earned Doctorates from the National Science Foundation shows fields where women earned a huge percentage of all doctorates and fields where women earned only a small percentage of all doctorates.

Here are some of the academic fields in 2020 where women earned less than one third of all doctorates awarded:

• Plasma physics, 9.2%
• Structural engineering, 12.4%
• Condensed matter physics, 12.5%
• Robotics, 14.6%
• Mechanical engineering, 16.0%
• Acoustics, 17.2%
• Electrical engineering, 17.4%
• Elementary particles physics, 18.2%
• Logic, 18.2%
• Algebra, 19.3%
• Computer science, 19.5%
• Nuclear engineering, 20.7
• Atmospheric physics, 23.1%
• Theology, 23.8%
• Atomic physics, 23.7%
• Biophysics, 24.6%
• Finance, 25.3%
• Geophysics and seismology, 25.7%
• Geometry, 25.8%
• Medical physics, 25.9%
• Civil engineering 26.4%
• Theoretical chemistry, 26.4%
• Number theory, 27.5%
• Chemical engineering 30.1%
• Astrophysics 30.5%
• Organic chemistry, 32.0%
• Atmospheric chemistry, 32.6%
• Bioinformatics, 33.2%

In contrast, there are a number of academic fields where women earned at least three quarters of all doctoral degree awards in 2020. Some examples include:

• Nursing science 87.6%
• Developmental psychology, 87.6%
• School psychology, 85.4%
• Gender and women’s studies, 84.0%
• Special education, 81.3%
• Literacy and reading education, 81.1%
• Family psychology, 80.1%
• Art history, 79.8%
• Educational psychology, 78.7%
• Community psychology, 78.6%
• Clinical psychology, 77.7%
• Social work, 77.1%
• Health and behavior, 75.8%
• Science education, 75.5%