The National Science Foundation recently released its annual data on doctoral degree recipients in the United States. Data for the annual Survey of Earned Doctorates shows that universities in the United States conferred 59,015 doctorates in 2025, an increase of 1,002 from the previous year. Of these, 28,801, or 48.8 percent, were earned by women.
But when we look at doctoral degree awards in specific disciplines, we find that the overall numbers hide a continuing wide gender gap in many fields of study.
Here are some of the academic fields in 2025 where women earned less than one-third of all doctorates awarded:
- Astrophysics, 33.1%
- Medical physics, 32.8%
- Biophysics, 32.6%
- Materials engineering, 31.5%
- Mathematics and statistics, 30.8%
- Civil engineering, 30.0%
- Systems and manufacturing engineering, 29.3%
- Operations research, 28.6%
- Finance, 28.2%
- Computer science, 23.5%
- Artificial intelligence, 22.6%
- Computer engineering, 21.8%
- Physics, 21.8%
- Structural engineering, 21.4%
- Petroleum engineering, 20.4%
- Biblical studies, 18.8%
- Cybersecurity, 18.6%
- Electrical engineering, 18.5%
- Mechanical and aerospace engineering, 17.9%
In contrast, here are several fields in which women earn at least 80 percent of all doctorates awarded:
- Nursing education, 90.7%
- Early childhood education, 90.6%
- Developmental and child psychology, 89.1%
- Nursing science, 89.1%
- School psychology, 86.2%
- Special education, 86.1%
- Clinical child psychology, 83.6%
- Higher education research, 82.7%
- Physical and biological anthropology, 82.4%
- Applied behavior analysis, 82.1%
- Public health education, 81.0%