Women Continue to Earn More Than Half of All Doctorates Awarded to U.S. Citizens

The National Science Foundation recently released its annual data on research doctoral degree recipients in the United States. Data for the annual Survey of Earned Doctorates shows that universities in the United States conferred 57,862 research doctorates in 2023, up slightly from the previous year. Of these, 27,499, or 47.5 percent, were earned by women. The percentage of all research doctorates earned by women increased slightly from 2022.

If we restrict the data to U.S. citizens and permanent residents of this country, we find that 18,893 women earned doctorates in 2023. This was 53.1 percent of all doctoral recipients among U.S. citizens and permanent residents. The number of U.S. women earning doctorates dropped for four straight year from 2017 to 2021. But in 2022, the number of U.S. women earning doctorates was up by nearly 10 percent. In 2023, the number of U.S. women earning doctorates increased by 2.4 percent

In 2023, there was a wide gender disparity in doctoral awards in specific disciplines. For example, women earned 66.9 percent of all doctorates in health sciences, 73.2 percent in education, and 74.7 percent of all doctorates in psychology.

In contrast, women earned only 33.8 percent of the doctorates in the physical sciences. In engineering, women earned 26.5 percent of the doctorates awarded in 2023 and in mathematics women earned just 27.5 of all doctorates awarded.