Report Reveals Women More Likely Than Men to Complete All Levels of Postsecondary Education

A new report from the Institute of Education Sciences has analyzed the postsecondary enrollment, completion, and financial aid outcomes of students who were in ninth-grade in 2009. The findings are from the Postsecondary Education Administrative Records Collection of the High School Longitudinal Study of 2009, which tracked students from their ninth-grade year in 2009 through their post-secondary experiences through 2021.

Out of all student participants who enrolled in some form of postsecondary education, 53.9 percent were women. Additionally, women who did enroll and complete a program after high school were more likely than men to receive a postsecondary certificate, associate’s degree, bachelor’s degree, and graduate degree. Men who did enroll in a post-secondary program were more likely than women to drop out.

Although women are more likely than men to receive a postsecondary education, men continue to hold the largest share of representation in STEM education. Men were 16 percentage points more likely than women to enroll in a STEM postsecondary program. When broken down into specific STEM fields, 6.1 percent of men enrolled in a computer science and information field and 13.8 percent enrolled in an engineering program, compared to 1.5 percent and 2.7 percent of women respectively. The narrowest gender gaps in STEM post-secondary enrollment were seen in the life sciences, mathematics, and agricultural programs, with 9.5 percent of women and 9.7 percent of men enrolling in those fields.