Figure

II-08b: Percentage of Humanities Bachelor’s Degrees Awarded to Women, Selected Disciplines, 1966–2015*

Data Source and Other Information

* Only some humanities disciplines have been tracked by the federal government since 1966. Please see the Note on the Data Used to Calculate Humanities Degree Counts and Shares for further explanation.

Source: Office of Education/U.S. Department of Education, Survey of Earned Degrees, Higher Education General Information System (HEGIS), and Integrated Postsecondary Data System (IPEDS). HEGIS and IPEDS data were accessed via the National Science Foundation’s online data system, WebCASPAR. Data analyzed and presented by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences’ Humanities Indicators (www.humanitiesindicators.org).

About the Data

With the 2017 update of this item, the Humanities Indicators revised the taxonomy of degrees tabulated as part of the field. The largest change was the inclusion of categories in the field of communication that fall within the humanities. All data since 1987 have been tabulated using the Classification of Instructional Programs (CIP). For an explanation of the advantages of using the CIP to tally humanities degree completions, see the Note on the Data Used to Calculate Humanities Degree Counts and Shares. For an inventory of the specific degree programs that together constitute the academic humanities as they are conceptualized by the Humanities Indicators, see the Degree Program Code Catalog.

Related Indicators

For historical trends in levels of humanities bachelor’s degree completion, see “Bachelor’s Degrees in the Humanities.” For additional information on the demographics of students earning bachelor’s degrees in the humanities, see “Racial/Ethnic Distribution of Bachelor’s Degrees in the Humanities.” For details as to the types of humanities bachelor’s degrees awarded and the nature of the institutions from which they are received, see “Disciplinary Distribution of Bachelor’s Degrees in the Humanities” and “Institutional Distribution of Bachelor’s Degrees in the Humanities.” For comparable information on trends at the graduate level, see “Gender Distribution of Advanced Degrees in the Humanities.”

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The Humanities Indicators and Departmental Survey have been made possible in part by grants from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this website do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
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