Gender Differences in How Recent College Graduates Fared During the Pandemic

A new report from the U.S. Department of Education examines the experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic of students who graduated from college in the 2015-16 academic year. Some of the data is broken down by gender.

Nearly 28 percent of women who graduated from college in the 2015-16 academic year reported that they had to work more than they desired in 2020 due to the pandemic. Almost 30 percent worked less than they would have desired. Some 8.4 percent of these women said they had to take a less desirable job and 14 percent said they delayed additional educational training due to the pandemic. In all of these instances, the percentages for women were higher than those for men.

For 2015-16 college graduates, 12.6 percent of women reported that they had difficulty meeting essential expenses during the pandemic, compared to only 8.3 percent of men who graduated from college that year. Nearly 15 percent of women took on additional child or family care responsibilities compared to 11.6 percent of men. Eight percent of these college-educated women said they delayed getting married and 7.5 percent said they delayed having children.

During the pandemic, 76 percent of men who graduated from college in the 2015-16 academic year reported that they were employed full-time, compared to 71 percent of women. For college-educated men, the average annual pay during the pandemic was $67,800. For college-education women, the average pay was $55,900.