Gender Differences in Graduate Degree Awards

A new report from the Council on Graduate Schools offers a look at degree attainment in graduate schools in the United States. The number of doctoral degrees awarded increased by 3.0 percent, between 2020-21 and 2021-22. The number of master’s degrees increased by just 0.9 percent in the same time period.

Women earned 33,784 master’s degrees in the 2021-22 academic year. This was 66.9 percent of all master’s degrees awarded. Women earned more than 80 percent of all master’s degrees awarded in health sciences and public administration and 79 percent of all master’s degrees in education. But women earned only 34.2 percent of master’s degrees in mathematics and computer science and 29 percent of all master’s degrees in engineering.

The number of master’s degrees earned by women increased in eight of 11 broad fields of study, including business (11.3 percent) and physical and earth sciences (8.2 percent). By comparison, the number of master’s degrees earned by men increased in six of 11 fields of study between 2020-21 and 2021-22.

Women earned 43,027 doctoral degrees in the 2021-22 academic year. This was 54.5 percent of all doctoral degrees awarded. Women earned 73 percent of all doctoral degrees in health sciences and 71 percent of all doctorates in education but only 27 percent of all doctoral degrees in mathematics and computer science and 26 percent in engineering.

The number of doctorates earned by women increased in eight of eleven fields, the largest being in math and computer sciences (10.4 percent), social and behavioral sciences (10.3 percent), and physical and earth sciences (9.8 percent). The number of doctoral degrees awarded to men decreased in seven of 11 fields