Unlike the pattern we saw with the lower degrees, women have not reached parity with men in the higher degrees. This may be due to their facing choices about marriage and children or to the fact that women have only recently increased their high school study of math and science, which will allow them to enter professions previously closed to them. Women's share of higher degrees is projected to increase; they will receive 48% of first-professional degrees and 44% of doctor's degrees by 2010.
Doctor's Degrees Awarded, Percentages, by Sex: 1996-97
| Field | Men | Women |
| Education | 36.7 | 63.3 |
| Engineering | 87.6 | 12.4 |
| Humanities | 51.9 | 48.1 |
| Life sciences | 55.0 | 45.0 |
| Physical sciences | 77.9 | 22.1 |
| Mathematics | 76.5 | 23.5 |
| Business & management. | 69.4 | 30.6 |
| Social sciences & psychology | 47.3 | 52.7 |
The most popular fields at the doctor's degree level are education, engineering, biological and life sciences, and physical sciences. In this table, we see that, as with bachelor's degree recipients, women dominate in education but lag behind in lucrative fields like engineering, mathematics, and business and management.
Between 1983 and 1995, the doctor's degree fields showing the most growth were business (up 80%), engineering, (117%), health professions (79%), and mathematics (68%). There was a decline (1%) in education degrees. The first-professional fields showing the greatest gains were pharmacy (up 221%), and osteopathic medicine (41%). Dentistry and theology declined.
The table below shows that more first-professional degrees are awarded in law than any other field. Law has always been a high-status job, lawyer jokes notwithstanding. Each year over the last four decades, the percentage of women entering America's law schools climbed by a point or two, from only 4.2% in 1963 to 48.7% in 1999. The profession is lucrative. The median starting salary for full-time attorney jobs rose from $45,000 for the class of 1998 to $50,000 for the class of 1999.
The job outlook for the health professions is favorable. While the number of first-professional health degrees has shown little change since 1982-83, more women are concentrating in this area. About 43% of incoming medical students in 2000 were female, up from 9% in 1970. About 60% of female medical students specialize in more nurturing but less lucrative fields like family practice, psychiatry, and pediatrics.
With regard to other health professions, pharmacy experienced the largest increase in degrees awarded, and women receive more than twice as many pharmacy degrees as men. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that half of all pharmacists made between $52,310 and $80,250 a year in 1998. Similarly, more than twice as many women as men choose veterinary medicine. Women were 43% percent of practicing veterinarians in 1999, up from just 2% in 1989. Median annual earnings of veterinarians were $60,910 in 2000.
Number of First-Professional Degrees: 1995-96
| Field | Men | Women |
| Dentistry | 1,701 | 1,397 |
| Medicine | 6,741 | 6,450 |
| Optometry | 482 | 673 |
| Osteopathic medicine | 1,091 | 714 |
| Pharmacy | 709 | 1,747 |
| Podiatry | 339 | 191 |
| Veterinary medicine | 657 | 1,457 |
| Chiropractic medicine | 2,165 | 996 |
| Law | 18,445 | 17,531 |
| Theology | 3,394 | 1,536 |
| Other | 25 | 56 |
Increasing numbers of women in theology is a phenomenon that began with the call for the ordination of women in the 1970's. The Web site www.religioustolerance.org tells us that the percentage of female graduate students at 229 North American Christian schools of theology rose from 10% in 1972 to 30% in 1997. In some schools of theology, more than 50% of the students are women. Pay is probably not a motivator for people who choose to study theology.
Source: Chart: U.S. Department of Education, NCES, Higher Education General Information Survey (HEGIS), "Degrees and Other Formal Awards Conferred" surveys, and Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), "Completions" surveys. Table 2: Digest of Education Statistics 2000; primary source: National Academy of Sciences, National Research Council, Office of Scientific and Engineering Personnel, Summary Report 1997: Doctorate Recipients from United States Universities. Salary figures for attorneys retrieved 3/26/02 from http://www.nalp.org/press/jjd99.htm. Jane Easter Bahls, "The New Majority," Student Lawyer, Sept. 2000, p. 20-24. Julie Marquis, "A Huge Dose of Change," Los Angeles Times, March 10, 2000, p. A1+. Jonathan W. Kelinson, "Trends in College Degrees," U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Fall 1998, retrieved 3/26/02 from http://www.pueblo.gsa.gov.
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