Share of Graduate Degrees in the Humanities Conferred on Women, by Degree Level, 1988–2020

Share of Graduate Degrees in the Humanities Conferred on Women, by Degree Level, 1988–2020

From 1988 to 2020, the share of graduate degrees in the humanities that were earned by women increased at both degree levels. The larger increase occurred among those receiving doctoral degrees, in which the share of doctorates conferred on women rose from 47% to 55% in 2016, before slipping back to 53% in 2020. The change among master’s degree recipients was comparatively modest, rising from 59% in 1988 to 62% in 2020. In recent years, women’s representation among humanities degree recipients was very similar to their representation among master’s degree recipients generally.5

Endnotes

• 5Ibid. IPEDS offers institutions only two categories for reporting the gender of degree recipients: “men” and “women.”