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 women earned 48.8 percent of all doctorates awarded by U.S. universities in 2025. The data also shows the employment plans of students after they received their doctoral degrees.
In 2025, 15,852 of the 28,801 women, or 55 percent, who earned doctoral degrees had firm commitments of employment by the time they received their degree. This was slightly higher than the percentage of male doctoral degree recipients who had firm job offers by the time they received their doctoral degree.
For 2025 doctoral recipients who had a job offer, 27.8 percent of women had accepted positions in the academic arena. For male doctoral recipients in 2025 who had job offers, only 20.3 percent were heading to academia.
Of women who had firm employment commitments by the time they received their doctorate in 2025, 17.9 had jobs in the corporate world compared to 30.2 percent of men who had job commitments by the time they were awarded their doctorate. It appears that for both men and women, doctoral graduates are becoming increasingly more likely to take high-paying jobs in the private sector rather than staying in the academic world.
Just over 4 percent of men and women who earned doctorates were heading to jobs in government.
For all doctoral recipients in 2025 who had employment commitments by the time they received their doctorate, women were to receive a median salary of $87,800 compared to a median salary of $114,750 for men. The far larger percentage of male doctoral recipients taking jobs in business and industry undoubtedly is a major reason for the salary gender gap for new doctoral recipients. Men who took jobs as postdoctoral researchers in the academic world had a median income that was just $520 more than the median salary for women who were hired as postdoctoral researchers.