Women Are Making Progress at Schools With Large Numbers of STEM Graduates

A new study by the labor market analytics firm Emsi and published in The Wall Street Journal finds that women are making progress in earning degrees in STEM fields at the universities that produce the most STEM graduates. At nine of the 10 universities with the largest number of degree earners in STEM fields, women made gains from 2012 to 2016. At six of these 10 schools women earned at least one third of all STEM degrees.

Some other colleges and universities with large numbers of STEM graduates have made tremendous progress. For example, at Florida State University, women made up 42 percent of STEM graduates in 2016, up from 32 percent in 2012. At Columbia University in New York, women were 42 percent of all degree earners in STEM fields in 2016, an increase from 37 percent in 2012.

At Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts, the percentage of STEM graduate who were women rose from 27 percent to 31 percent. This year, 43 percent of all entering women in STEM disciplines are women, up 10 percentage points from a year ago.