Trends in Postsecondary Education - Trends In Conferred Degrees: Gender

Two remarkable trends evolved during the 20th century. More and more Americans completed college, and starting in the last third of the century, a larger percentage of completers was female. A record 29% of all Americans aged 25 and older held at least a bachelor's degree in 2000 (28% of males, 24% of females), compared to just 5% in 1940 and 21% in 1990. Among people aged 25 to 29, more women (30%) than men (28%) had completed a bachelor's degree or higher.

The graphic shows trends and projections in degree awards. The number of degrees granted at all levels rose steadily in spite of a decline in the traditional college-age population of 18-to 24-year-olds in the 1980s and 1990s. The increase in degree earners was largely due to growing enrollments of women and older people. However, it is projected that from 1999 to 2010, enrollment of people under 25 will rise 24% while it will increase only 9% for older people. The number of students earning degrees is expected to rise between 2001-02 and 2010-11. The number of bachelor's degrees should reach a peak of 1.3 million in 2010-11, reflecting an increase of 13% compared to 2001-02.

In 1970, women earned 25% to 30% fewer degrees than men. By the 1980s women had reached parity with men at all three degree levels. Women's share kept rising. It is projected that women will continue to outperform men. Gains will be especially pronounced among older women. Women are now such a presence on campuses that colleges must compete for the best-qualified men. The drop in the number of men applying to college is attributed to boys doing less well academically in high school and to their higher high school dropout rates.

It now takes an average of five years to get a college degree, and it takes men longer than women to complete. A 1996 UCLA study showed that only 36.8% of men earned their degree in four years, compared to 43.2% of women. After nine years, the numbers increased to 43% of men and 48.6% of women.

Top 10 Fields of Study for 1996-1997 Bachelor's Degree Recipients and Percentage of Male/Female Recipients

Field of study	Total	Men	Women
Business management/Admin. Services	221,875	51.6	48.4
Social sciences/History	124,891	51.3	48.7
Education	105,233	25.0	75.0
Health professions/Related sciences	85,631	18.5	81.5
Psychology	74,191	26.1	73.9
Biological sciences/Life sciences	63,975	46.1	53.9
Engineering	61,185	81.8	18.2
Visual & performing arts	50,083	41.4	58.6
English language & literature/letters	49,345	33.5	66.5
Communications	47,230	41.1	58.9

This table shows the top ten fields of study in 1996-97 at the bachelor's level and the percentages of men and women graduates. Business tops the list. Notice that women dominate in less lucrative fields where they have always been overrepresented notably the education and health professions. In the year 2000, women earned less than men at every degree level.

Enrollment in computer science and engineering declined in the late 1980s to mid-1990s (master's enrollment was up). Women have shown little interest in engineering and IT — due, perhaps, to societal bias: there are many female engineers in Russia and Europe. Women earned 21% of engineering bachelor's degrees awarded in 1995, up from practically zero in 1971. Women's share of bachelor's degrees in computer/information sciences grew from 14% in 1971 to 27% in 1997.

The number of bachelor's degrees awarded grew 31% from 1972 to 1997. The most remarkable upward trend has been in technical fields other than computer science and engineering. Why? Increasing numbers of women concentrated in those other technical areas. Biological and physical science degrees rose about 40% between 1992 and 1998.

The most popular fields at the master's level are education and business. The fields showing the greatest gain between 1983 and 1995 were park, recreation, leisure, and fitness studies (up 189%); engineering (117%); and engineering technologies (108%).

Many future jobs will not require a college degree. Futurist, the magazine of the World Future Society, complains: "We are educating people for the wrong futures." (See Work & Leisure, Chapter 3, for more on this counter-intuitive finding.)

Source: Chart: National Center for Education Statistics. Earned Degrees Conferred; Projections of Education Statistics to 2010; Higher Education General Information Survey (HEGIS), "Degrees and Other Formal Awards Conferred" surveys; and Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), "Completions" survey. Table: Morgan, Frank B. "Degrees and Other Awards Conferred by Title IV Eligible, Degree-Granting Institutions: 1996-97." Education Statistics Quarterly (Spring 2000). Online. Available: http://nces.ed.gov. March 15, 2002. Clayton, Mark. "Engineering 100: No Men Allowed." Christian Science Monitor. 4 January 2000, p.14. "Degree Attainment Rates at Colleges and Universities." Online. Available: http://www.gseis.ucla.edu/heri/press_darcu.htm. March 20, 2002. Clayton, Mark. "The Gender Equation — Part 2." Christian Science Monitor, 29 May 2001, p. 17. Gordon, Edward E. "Help Wanted: Creating Tomorrow's Work Force." Futurist (July/August 2000), p. 48.