Women Earned More Doctoral Degrees Than Men In 2008-2009

Women outnumbered men for the first time in achievement of doctoral degrees in the 2008-2009 academic year, a new report details.

According to the Council of Graduate Schools, which conducted the analysis of graduate enrollment and degrees, 50.4 percent of last year's PhDs were awarded to women. Though more women have been enrolled in graduate and undergraduate programs since the 1980s, men have held sway in terms of PhDs until last year, perhaps because it might be harder for women to devote the required years of study than it is for men. As Catherine Hill, research director at the American Association of University Women, told the Washington Post, "Many women feel they have to choose between having a career in academics and having a family."

According to the Council of Graduate School's Research and Policy Analysis Director Nathan Bell, the parity has been a long time coming. Bell told Inside Higher Ed that the phenomenon was inevitable given recent trends in higher learning. But the female majority is not consistent across disciplines; men still hold an advantage in engineering, math and computer science, physical and earth sciences and business.

Do you think universities should make an active effort to narrow the gender gap? Share your thoughts below.

Comments

[Clevelandinwi]

05:04 PM on 10/13/2010

Why not? They're a hell of a lot smarter;.

[Lohikaarme]

06:26 AM on 09/16/2010

What should be pointed out is that it has been several years already that a large majority of the PhD degrees in engineering and science, earned in the US, are by foreign born men and women. In some areas the percentage is close to 80%. That is more telling of the type of education that our US born people are choosing, regardless of their gender. No wonder they will have difficult time getting a god job later even with a PhD.

[SeeDaddy]

07:52 PM on 09/15/2010

What gender gap? The one where slightly more women are earning doctorates than men?

[Candid One]

09:38 PM on 09/15/2010

And the other one, that more women than men are going to college in recent years.

[AbeMartin]

09:14 AM on 09/15/2010

Congratulations to all of the thousands of newly degreed, Ph.D's and Ed.D's whether male or female, young or old. The challenge for them all now, is to find employment that in some way justifies the time, expense and educational humiliations that accompany doctoral pursuit. Universities and colleges, long ago stopped being a dependable next step for researchers and instructors; private industry is no longer hiring at a level that matches the output of doctors from increasing numbers of "doctoral degree granting institutions" (this is a sarcastic description because in most instances it is an oxymoron). K-12 school systems are firing and laying off people as the government continues to fail to address jobs creation. Good luck to all of you. You are going to need it!

[Tully Rand]

07:58 PM on 09/14/2010

This is just the latest piece of evidence indicating that men between the ages of 18 and 40 are falling behind women in almost every regard. Unemployment rates for young men are far higher than those of women. This was the case before the current recession began. The recent downturn only made those figures worse. Furthermore, a report was issued a couple of weeks ago stating that young single women are earning more at work than young single men. This was unprecedented in American history. We have entered an age where young men are in crisis in America. Too many of them are perpetual adolescents, who adopt the attitude that hard work and academic study isn't cool. Instead, they play video games, fail in relationships, drop out of college, drink too much and struggle to take directions from supervisors in the workplace. This produces chronic career instability and unemployment. This problem will continue to get worse until young men in the United realize that high school and frat boy behavior does not fly in the working world. I know there are numerous exceptions to this. Many young men are still dedicated to succeeding in their careers. However, this is an issue that is on the rise.

[fem56]

01:27 PM on 09/15/2010

You are seeing the result of an attitude in our country that young boys can figure things out on their own but girls need help and encouragement every step of the way. Instead of blaming men who were often raised without a father in the home and a very busy working mother we need to see the results of our attitude. Parents put special effort teaching their daughters that they can do whatever they want to do. That is certainly a good thing but constently reminding your son that women are so discriminated against by men is not a good thing. They need to be taught to respect and appreciate women. They need to be taught that women are their equals of course but not that they are women's inferiors in every area but physical prowess. Boys need a lot of positive attention from their parents, that the world and their families really, really need them to be the best men they can be. Boys do better in single sex school that adhere to best practices for teaching boys. I have seem these practices incooperated into developmentally appropriate project based coed schools where physical activity was used as a learning tool. Our boys can succeed but I believe we need to look at the root of the problem not just the consequence.

[NevadaLib]

01:17 PM on 09/14/2010

this is great for big business since they only make 76 cents on the dollar. Woman have higher attendance in law schools and universities now. I think it's awesome and makes it easier to attend class.

[corwin]

10:06 PM on 09/14/2010

I enjoy reading posts like yours. In the first place,if one is 'conjuring' numbers,why not 73? or 82? PG Wodehouse is very good on things like this. See his,"Why Chief Inspector Witherspoon? On the other hand, Why not?"
Look logic -oops.I'll try again. Look,a little thought. Hmm,that's probably murky for you,too.No other way but to say it.
If you're aboard member of a big corp,and you can hire folks with the same qualifications for 76% of some one else,why would they ever hire males?
AND,SOME OF MY BEST FRIENDS WERE Liberal Arts majors, but even they know better than this

[iGeek]

01:03 PM on 09/14/2010

"But the female majority is not consistent across disciplines; men still hold an advantage in engineering, math and computer science, physical and earth sciences and business."

Call me when women have an advantage in those disciplines. ;)

[NevadaLib]

01:18 PM on 09/14/2010

heh, it's not a competition.

[corwin]

10:07 PM on 09/14/2010

Diffidently, I point out ,it is. Life is a competition.

[MikeDu]

01:01 PM on 09/14/2010

There's some irony that those right-wing white male jocks who had lobbied so vocally to end 'quotas' and 'reverse discrimination' on campus now discover they aren't exactly at the top of the bell curve, themselves. I understand Harvard has had to institue a new quota system specifically to retain a token share of white male faces in the classroom.

[ixington]

01:20 PM on 09/14/2010

As a white male, I'd like to see evidence that admission to my PhD program was based on something other than merit. Please follow up.

[MikeDu]

08:07 PM on 09/14/2010

Harvard (just down the street from where I live) has stated pulbically that they are indeed letting more dumb white guys through because, to roughly paraphrase their reasoning, who wants to go to a college with just chicks? Every Asian woman college freshman will tell you that thier straight As did not count the same as the "almost-straight-As" of other ethnic groups. That they had to jump through more hoops, score better-than-best to be pass through the narrower opening that limits the percentage of Asian women in colleges.

[corwin]

10:08 PM on 09/14/2010

oh? Data please?
whisper,whisper whisper.
I'm informed it's bad manners to ask a HP commenter to verify nonsensical claims.Sorry. I didn't know.