Ranking the States by the Percentage of Women Among Their Doctoral Degree Recipients

The National Science Foundation recently released its annual report on doctoral degree recipients in the United States. The annual Survey of Earned Doctorates reports that universities in the United States conferred 53,906 doctorates in 2014. Of these, 24,857, or 46.1 percent, were earned by women.

There is a wide disparity between the states in the awarding of doctoral degrees to women. Despite the fact that nationwide men earned nearly 4,200 more doctoral degrees than women in 2014, there were several states where women earned more doctorates than men.

In Alaska, women earned 65.3 percent of all doctorates awarded in 2014. This was the highest percentage in the nation by a considerable margin. Rhode Island ranked second and Hawaii was third. In addition to the District of Columbia, the other states where women earned more doctorates than men in 2014 were Nebraska, Minnesota, Maine, and Vermont.

Women earned less than 40 percent of all doctorates in only three states: Utah, Idaho, and Wyoming.