More Ph.D.s for Women, Minorities

For the first time in history, more women than men are earning doctoral degrees in every racial and ethnic group, according to a recent report published by the National Science Foundation.

In the sciences and engineering, the number of degrees awarded to women also grew at a faster rate than the number awarded to men. But the most drastic difference between the genders was in the humanities: awards to women in these fields grew by 7 percent since 2003, while awards to men remained flat.

Jaquelina C. Falkenheim, a co-author of the report, said in an interview yesterday that the “numbers for women have been going up—this is a new time trend that should be watched.”

At Harvard, the picture is more mixed.

Asian women outnumbered men at the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences—the unit of Harvard that grants Ph.D.s—and at the schools of dentistry, design, education, government, law, medicine, and public health. But the number of white men exceeds the number of white women at all graduate schools except in the schools of divinity, education, and public health.

When asked about this trend, Russian studies professor Terry Martin said that rise in the number of women has been “quite dramatic” in his own field.

“Out of the eight Ph.D. students I work with, five of them are women,” he said, noting that when he received his doctorate in 1996, there were scarcely any female Ph.D. candidates.

Likewise, Sheila Ferguson, the graduate program administrator in the physics department, said that she and her colleagues have noticed the trend “for a number of years now.”

Although there are currently more men than women enrolled in the graduate program for physics, 137 compared to 56, Ferguson said that the department has seen a dramatic rise in the female enrollment compared to other departments.

American institutions awarded over 48,000 doctorates last year—the highest number in history and the fifth annual increase in doctorates awarded.

The number of doctorates awarded to minorities grew by about 20 percent over the past five years, compared to about 5 percent for white students. Asian women in particular make up the fastest growing segment of minority doctorates recipients, with the total number of degrees awarded rising by 30 percent from 2003 to 2007.

The number of doctorates awarded in the sciences and engineering rose, reaching 66 percent of all doctoral degrees, while the number of doctorates awarded in the humanities fell by more than 4 percent over the past decade.