Women Gaining Degrees and Ground

Source: U.S. Department of Education

• Women are educating themselves in areas once dominated by men.
• In 2000, about half of those earning bachelor's degrees in business were women.
• Twenty years earlier, women made up only 34 percent of business graduates.
• From 1980 to 2000, women earning four-year degrees in engineering rose by 109 percent, while the male numbers decreased by 5.3 percent.
• In the area of mathematics, the number of women earning related degrees has risen by 16 percent, and men's numbers have fallen slightly.
• At the same time, women have gained even greater ground in nursing and teaching careers, both female-dominated fields.
• In 2000, women made up 76 percent of those graduating with a degree in education.
• Likewise, nursing degrees were largely conferred upon women with men making up only about one percent of those receiving nursing degrees in 2000.