Gender Gap in College Degrees: 50 Years of Data Explained

In 1970, men earned nearly six doctoral degrees for every one earned by a woman.

Today, that ratio has flipped.

Women now earn the majority of college degrees at every level — associate’s, bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral. As of 2020, women receive 61% of associate degrees, 58% of bachelor’s degrees, 61% of master’s degrees, and 55% of doctoral degrees in the United States.

This is not a small demographic shift. It is a structural transformation of higher education that has unfolded over five decades.

While men continue to dominate certain STEM fields like engineering and computer science, women have surpassed men across higher education overall, including in advanced graduate programs that were once almost exclusively male.

How did this reversal happen? And what does it mean for the future of education, the workforce, and economic opportunity?

Percentage of College Degrees Earned by Gender

This chart shows the percentage of college degrees awarded to women from 1970 to the present, based on data from Table 318.10 of the 2023 Digest of Education Statistics.

The number of women receiving degrees surpassed the number of men for Associate’s degrees in the late 1970s, for Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in the early 1980s, and Doctoral degrees in 2005. 

Women now earn a majority of all college degrees. As of 2020, women earn 61% of Associate’s degrees, 58% of Bachelor’s degrees, 61% of Master’s degrees and 55% of Doctoral degrees. 

This chart shows the ratio of men to women earning college degrees by degree level on a logarithmic scale from 1970 to 2020. Using the logarithmic scale makes it easier to visualize the differences among the various degree levels. 

In 1970, there were approximately 6 men for every woman receiving a Doctoral degree. Today, the ratio has dropped below 1.0 (roughly 0.8), meaning that more women are graduating with Doctoral degrees than men. For Associate’s degrees the ratio is 0.6, for Bachelor’s degrees the ratio is 0.7 and for Master’s degrees the ratio is 0.6. These figures demonstrate a significant majority of women among college degree recipients. 

Growth in the Number of College Degree Recipients

The number of both male and female students grew significantly over the five decade period, but the number of female degree recipients grew faster. The number of men receiving college degrees grew from 753,000 in 1970 to 1,666,000 in 2020. 

At the same time, the number of women receiving college degrees each year grew from 518,000 to 2,426,000. 

This chart shows the number of male and female Bachelor’s degree recipients by year. You can see that women surpassed men by 1985 and it’s been steadily increasing ever since.

The STEM Gap

These trends have not been uniform across all fields, especially STEM. 

This chart shows that although the number of STEM degree recipients increased for both men and women, the number of degrees for women did not catch up with the number of degrees for men, because both have been increasing at about the same pace. The difference was fairly constant over time. The chart is based on data from Table 318.45 of the Digest of Education Statistics, 2023.

This chart shows the percentage of STEM degrees awarded to women. The percentage increased from 30.8% in 2012-13 to 35.5% in 2022-23. This is a small increase, though the trend is magnified by the narrower Y axis range in the chart.

Fields with High and Low Percentages of Female Degree Recipients

This data is based on the Bachelor’s degree subset of data from Table 318.30 of the Digest of Education Statistics, 2022. 

Some fields of study have a high percentage female Bachelor’s degree recipients. These include:

• Registered Nursing (87%)
• Health Professions (85%) 
• Psychology (80%)
• Biological and Biomedical Sciences (66%).

Women also tend to represent a high percentage of Bachelor’s degree recipients in the humanities:

• Library Science (91%) 
• Education (83%)
• English Language and Literature (73%)
• Foreign Languages, Literature and Linguistics (71%)
• Legal Professions (71%)
• Liberal Arts and Humanities (64%)
• Visual and Performing Arts (63%). 

Women also represent a slight majority of Bachelor’s degree recipients in law enforcement (52%).

Women represent a lower percentage of Bachelor’s degree recipients in STEM fields, including engineering (23%), computer science (22%) and mathematics (42%). They also represent a low percentage of Bachelor’s degrees in history (42%), philosophy (34%) and transportation (13%).

Causes of the Increase in College Degree Attainment 

The percentage of college degrees earned by women changed dramatically over the last 50 years because legal barriers fell, economic incentives rose, academic preparation favored female students, and cultural expectations flipped.

The shift in the number of college degree recipients has been most visible in doctoral degree programs, where women obtained fewer than 10% of doctoral degrees in 1970 and receive the majority of doctoral degrees (55%) in 2020.

Passage of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 on June 23, 1972 eliminated caps on the enrollment of women at selective colleges and professional schools. Title IX made it illegal for federally-funded educational institutions to discriminate on the basis of sex.

This opened the doors to graduate programs, law schools and medical schools that had previously been almost entirely male. This change provided women with access to professional careers that were previously closed to them. 

High schools were also forced to provide equal academic opportunities for girls, shifting more of them to the college-preparatory track. Girls generally receive higher grades in high school than boys and are more likely to graduate, increasing the likelihood that they would enroll in and graduate from college. 

The financial impact also provided a strong incentive. The wage premium from a college degree was higher for women than for men. College degrees help women achieve financial independence.

Jobs that were traditionally held by women, such as nursing and teaching, started requiring Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees and more rigorous training.

The transition from a homemaker-centric society to one of dual-earner households further solidified these trends. The widespread availability of birth control allowed women to delay marriage and childbirth, providing the time needed to complete rigorous professional degrees. Consequently, the college degree evolved from a luxury to a fundamental requirement for women’s financial independence and professional identity.

Final Thoughts

Over the past five decades, the gender gap in higher education did not merely narrow – it reversed. Women now earn the majority of college degrees at every level, including doctoral programs once dominated by men. This transformation reflects changes in law, labor markets, academic preparation, and cultural expectations.

But the shift is not uniform. Men remain overrepresented in certain STEM fields, while women dominate health professions and many humanities disciplines. 

Understanding these trends is essential for policymakers, educators, and employers. Higher education shapes workforce composition, earnings potential, and long-term economic growth.