Examining the Gender Gap in Graduate School Enrollments in the United States

A new report from the Council on Graduate Schools provides data on graduate school enrollments by gender. The report shows that in 2018, there were 309,613 women students enrolled in graduate schools for the first time. They made up 59 percent of all first-time graduate students at U.S. universities. Women were 54.4 percent of all first-time enrollees in doctoral programs.

If we break down the data by broad academic field, we find that women made up 78.9 percent of all first-time graduate students in public administration and more than 75 percent of all first-time graduate students in the health sciences and education. But women were only 27 percent of all first-time graduate students in engineering and 41.1 percent in the physical sciences. Women were 34.5 percent of all first-time graduate students in mathematics and computer science.

If we look at total enrollments in U.S. graduate schools, we find that in 2018, there were 1,081,528 women students. They made up 57 percent of all enrollments. Women made up 60 percent of the enrollments in graduate degree programs and 52 percent of all those enrolled in doctoral programs. In 2018, women made up less than 40 percent of all graduate student enrollments in engineering, mathematics and computer science, and physical sciences. Women were more than 75 percent of all graduate students in education, the health sciences, and public administration.

Of all women graduate students, 55.1 percent were enrolled on a full-time basis. For men, the figure was 59.9 percent. Only 36.6 percent of women enrolled in graduate programs in education were enrolled full-time.

The full report, Graduate Enrollment and Degrees, 2008 to 2018, may be downloaded by clicking here.