Women handed out more PhDs than men in US last year: study

A recent study has revealed that more than half (53%) of the 79,000 doctoral degrees were handed out to women in the US last year.

As per the Council of Graduate Schools’ CGS/GRE Graduate Enrollment & Degrees: 2007-2017 report, women enrolled at US universities earned more doctoral degrees as compared to men for the ninth year in a row. 

However, men acquired the majority of PhDs in STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) subjects.

The report indicates women forging ahead of men in academics in various fields like public administration and services (75.6%), health sciences (70.3%) and education (68.8%). Women were also ahead of men in arts and humanities, as well as social and behavioural sciences.

Apart from doctoral degrees, women also earned 64% of  the certificates and 57.3% of master’s degrees in the year 2016-17.

However, male presence in the fields of engineering, maths and computer sciences and physical and earth sciences outnumbered that of females at 76.6%, 74.9% and 65.9% respectively.