Gender Differences in Enrollments in Post-Pandemic Higher Education

New data from the U.S. Census Bureau show higher education enrollment data for the fall of 2021, when the pandemic was waning and college enrollments were slowly returning to prepandemic levels.

In October 2021, there were 10,061,000 women enrolled in higher education in the United States. They made up 58.1 percent of all enrollments in higher education. Women were 52.5 percent of all entering students at two-year colleges and 57.8 percent of all students entering four-year institutions. Women were 57 percent of all full-time students enrolled in higher education and 61.2 percent of all students enrolled part-time.

Women were 58.3 percent of all students entering graduate school in the fall of 2021. They were 57.8 percent of all students in their second or more years in graduate school.

More than 55 percent of all women enrolled in higher education in 2021, were employed either full- or part-time in October 2021. For men enrolled in higher education at that time, 31.9 percent were employed either full- or part-time.

When we break the data down by racial or ethnic group, we find that Black women made up 65 percent of all African American enrollments in higher education in October 2021, the highest percentage of any major racial or ethnic group. Women were 53.6 percent of all Asian American enrollment, the lowest percentage of any major racial or ethnic group/