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30 Sep 2014
Brief

Exploring Gender Imbalance Among STEM Doctoral Degree Recipients

Andrew Gillen
Courtney Tanenbaum

Gender imbalance in doctoral education in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields raises important questions about the extent to which women experience differential access, encouragement, and opportunity for academic advancement. Through primary school and middle school, girls and boys typically indicate an equal interest and demonstrate equivalent levels of achievement on several science and mathematical indicators, but girls’ interest in pursuing scientific degrees and careers wanes by high school.

Accurately identifying the nature of the imbalance is an important first step in addressing it. The alternate method used in this brief to account for the gender breakdown among undergraduate degree recipients provides a more reliable gauge of gender imbalance at the  doctoral level.

Key results from using this alternate method are as follows:

  • ——Men are overrepresented in about three quarters of academic fields and women are overrepresented in about one quarter of academic fields.
  • STEM fields are slightly more gender-balanced than non-STEM fields.
  • Among STEM fields, and often in contrast to conventional wisdom, biological and biomedical sciences and the physical sciences show the greatest overrepresentation of males and engineering was roughly gender-balanced.

This brief is one in a series produced by AIR to promote research, policy, and practice related to broadening the participation of traditionally underrepresented groups in STEM doctoral education and the workforce.

PDF icon Exploring Gender Imbalance Among STEM Doctoral Degree Recipients

Related Work

30 Sep 2014
News Release

New AIR Report Looks at Ph.D. Gender Imbalance in Academic Fields

New research briefs on STEM Ph.D.'s shed light on two topics: the most gender imbalanced academic fields in which Ph.D.'s are awarded, and how debt is tied to graduate school funding patterns. The first study found that, in the STEM field, animal sciences and mathematics had far more men earning doctorates while forestry, information science/studies and three categories of engineering had more women. The second found that debt was particularly high for underrepresented minorities studying the social, behavioral and economic sciences.
30 Sep 2014
Brief

Who Pays for the Doctorate? A Tale of Two PhDs

The extreme levels of debt accrued by students pursuing postsecondary degrees has been identified as one of the nation’s most worrisome educational issues. About 90 percent of STEM Ph.D. recipients funded their graduate education through primarily institutional sources. In contrast, 65 percent of those with a doctorate in the social, behavioral and economic sciences did.
Topic: 
Education, Postsecondary Education, STEM
12 Feb 2013
Report

Broadening Participation in STEM: A Call to Action

This report, produced by AIR with consultation from the Institute for Higher Education Policy, details the key issues to consider and steps we should take to improve our position in STEM innovation. It includes six critical policy questions, along with an open letter to the nation on broadening perceptions in order to broaden participation.

Topic: 
Education, STEM
2 Jan 2013
Report

How Long Does It Take? STEM Ph.D. Completion for Underrepresented Minorities

This issue brief is the first in a series produced by AIR to promote research, policy, and practice related to broadening the participation of traditionally underrepresented groups in STEM doctoral education and the workforce.

Topic: 
Education, STEM

Further Reading

  • New AIR Report Looks at Ph.D. Gender Imbalance in Academic Fields
  • Broadening Participation in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics)
  • The Role of Historically Black Colleges and Universities as Pathway Providers: Institutional Pathways to the STEM Ph.D. Among Black Students
  • Who Pays for the Doctorate? A Tale of Two PhDs
  • Broadening Participation in STEM
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Image of Courtney Tanenbaum

Courtney Tanenbaum

Principal Researcher

Topic

Postsecondary Education
Education
STEM

RESEARCH. EVALUATION. APPLICATION. IMPACT.

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