FAQ College degrees awarded by gender
A few observations:1. Overall, women earned 57.34% of all bachelor’s degrees in 2016, which means there were 134 women graduating from college that year for every 100 men. It also reflects a whopping 25.6% gender college degree gap for men, who earned only 816,912 bachelor’s degrees in 2016 compared to 1,098,173 degrees earned by women (816,912 / 1,098,173 = 0.744, or 74.4 degrees for men per every 100 for women = gender college degree gap of 25.6% for men).
2. Although data are not yet available for bachelor’s degrees by field and gender in 2017, the Department of Education reported last month that women earned 57.3% of all bachelor’s degrees last year, so women now have an uninterrupted 35-year record of earning the majority of bachelor’s degrees in the US that started back in 1982. The Class of 2017 was also noteworthy for being the 18th straight college class that had more than 57% female representation for earning bachelor’s degrees – a milestone first reached by the Class of 2000.
3. Women earned nearly 60% of degrees in biology in 2016, which is one of the fields in the STEM area that we hear so much about in terms of female under-representation. And actually, if you include health professions as a STEM field, women earned more STEM degrees in 2016 (318,714) than men (265,000) for degrees in the seven STEM fields above marked with an asterisk (*). Or if you count just biology, mathematics, and physical sciences (e.g., chemistry, physics, etc.) women earn a majority (53%) of those of those STEM degrees. It’s really only when you include engineering and computer science that men have an overall majority of STEM degrees.
4. Now that Google has been in the media spotlight since former Google engineer James Damore’s July 2017 diversity memo, it’s interesting to note that the female share of computer science degrees (nearly 19%) in 2016 was about the same as the female share of Google’s tech jobs in that year (20.6%). And the female share of Google’s not-tech jobs (54%) is just slightly higher than the female share of business bachelor’s degrees (47%), assuming that a business degree might be the most common college degree required for those positions (marketing, sales, accounting, human resources, finance, etc.).
5. Note the wide variation in degrees by gender shares. Women earn the large majority of degrees in health professions, psychology, education, English and communication, and men earn the large majority of degrees in engineering, computer science, and theology.
What is the percentage of degrees conferred by race and sex?
Between academic years 2003–04 and 2013–14, the total number of postsecondary degrees awarded increased at all degree levels: certificates by 41 percent (from 688,000 to 969,000), associate's degrees by 51 percent (from 665,000 to 1.0 million), bachelor's degrees by 34 percent (from 1.4 million to 1.9 million), master's degrees by 34 percent (from 564,000 to 754,000), and doctor's degrees by 41 percent (from 126,000 to 178,000). Reflecting the overall increase in the number of postsecondary degrees awarded at each level, the number of postsecondary degrees awarded generally increased for racial/ethnic groups at each level between 2003–04 and 2013–14.
The number of postsecondary certificates below the baccalaureate level awarded to Hispanic students increased by 73 percent (from 107,200 to 185,600) between academic years 2003–04 and 2013–14. During this period, the number of certificates awarded increased by 37 percent for Black students (from 129,900 to 177,900), by 33 percent for Asian/Pacific Islander students (from 32,800 to 43,800), by 30 percent for White students (from 403,000 to 523,200), and by 29 percent for American Indian/Alaska Native students (from 8,400 to 10,800). As a result of these changes, the share of all certificates awarded to Hispanic students increased from 16 percent in 2003–04 to 19 percent in 2013–14. In contrast, the share of certificates earned by White students decreased from 59 to 54 percent during this period. The shares of certificates earned were similar in 2003–04 and 2013–14 for Black students (19 percent), Asian/Pacific Islander students (5 percent), and American Indian/Alaska Native students (1 percent).
At the associate's degree level, the number of degrees awarded to Hispanic students more than doubled between academic years 2003–04 and 2013–14 (a 131 percent increase, from 72,300 to 167,100), and the number of degrees earned by Black students increased by 66 percent (from 81,200 to 134,500). During this period, the number of associate's degrees awarded increased by 52 percent for Asian/Pacific Islander students (from 33,100 to 50,300), by 32 percent for White students (from 456,000 to 601,400), and by 27 percent by American Indian/Alaska Native students (from 8,100 to 10,300). As a result of the changes over this period, the share of all associate's degrees awarded to Hispanic students increased from 11 to 17 percent, and the share earned by Black students increased from 12 to 14 percent. In contrast, the share of associate's degrees earned by White students over the same period decreased from 70 to 61 percent. In both 2003–04 and 2013–14, the share of associate's degrees earned by Asian/Pacific Islander students was 5 percent, and the share earned by American Indian/Alaska Native was 1 percent.
Across racial/ethnic groups, larger shares of undergraduate degrees and certificates were awarded to female students than to male students in academic year 2013–14. For example, the shares of bachelor's degrees earned by female students were 64 percent for Black students, 61 percent for American Indian/Alaska Native students, 60 percent for Hispanic students and students of Two or more races,1 56 percent for White students, and 55 percent for Asian/Pacific Islander students.
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