
The graph shows college degrees granted in the USA. This topic sets up one for criticism, but I believe it is more important to examine the data and explore the possible ideas than to avoid anything that might be questioned by the politically correct police. An import factor, to me anyway, is that women are now graduating from college in far higher numbers than men. And in many science fields female baccalaureate graduates outnumber male graduates (psychology [67,000 to 19,000], biology[42,000 to 26,000], anthropology, sociology [20,000 to 8,000]) while men outnumber women in others (math [7,000 to 6,000], engineering [53,000 to 13,000], computer science [39,000 to 11,000], physics [3,000 to 900]).
Field | Bachelors |
|
Master’s |
|
Doctorate | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Women | Men | Women | Men | Women | Men | ||||
Biology | 42,283 | 25,699 | 4,870 | 3,229 | 3,105 | 3,257 | |||
Computer Science | 11,235 | 39,329 | 5,078 | 12,742 | 225 | 909 | |||
Economics | 8,141 | 17,023 | 1,391 | 2,113 | 355 | 827 | |||
Engineering | 13,197 | 52,936 | 7,607 | 26,492 | 1,174 | 5,215 | |||
Geosciences | 1,660 | 2,299 | 712 | 973 | 243 | 470 | |||
Physics | 903 | 3,307 | 427 | 1,419 | 200 | 1,132 | |||
Psychology | 66,833 | 19,103 | 12,632 | 3,444 | 2,264 | 211 | |||
Sociology | 20,138 | 8,438 | 920 | 485 | 343 | 211 | |||
All S&E | 235,197 | 230,806 | 53,051 | 66,974 | 10,533 | 17,405 |
What does this all mean? It is debatable, but I think it is very good news for the efforts many have made over the last few decades to open up opportunities for women. I still support efforts to provide opportunities for girls to get started in science and engineering but I think we have reached the day when the biggest concern is giving all kids better math and science primary education (and related extracurricular activities). Also continued focus and effort on the doctorate and professional opportunities for women is warranted.
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