DOCTORAL DEGREES AWARDED TO WOMEN BY DISCIPLINE, 2007–2018

By Angela Erdiaw-Kwasie

Reprinted from ASEE Connections

The number of engineering doctoral degrees awarded to women increased by 147.4 percent from 2007 to 2018. The period included the Great Recession, which lasted from December, 2007 to June, 2009*, as well as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, which increased government research funding. Research grants generally enable faculty members to hire graduate researchers. Women received 1,171 engineering doctorates in 2007 and 2897 in 2018, an increase of 1726.

Table 1 shows the number of total doctoral degrees awarded to women in 2007 and 2018 as well as the percentage of each discipline of the total degrees awarded.

The 5 engineering disciplines with the highest percentages in 2007 were: Electrical/Computer Engineering (12.6 percent), Chemical Engineering (12.5 percent), Biomedical Engineering (12.1 percent), Civil Engineering (10.4 percent) and Metallurgical and Materials Engineering (9.9 percent).

By 2018, the total number of degrees awarded in each discipline increased. However, those disciplines mostly had a lower proportion of the total in 2018. The exception was Biomedical Engineering, which increased from 12.1 percent of the total in 2007 to 14.0 percent in 2018.

It is also important to note that engineering disciplines such as Engineering Management, Engineering (General), and Mining Engineering awarded no doctoral degrees to women in the year 2007 but experienced some growth by 2018.

*National Bureau of Economic Research

Table 1: Doctoral Degrees Awarded to Women by Discipline, 2007–2018

Figure 1: Distribution of Engineering Disciplines of Doctoral Degrees Awarded to Women, 2007–2018