Understanding the Decision to Enroll in Graduate School: Sex and Racial/Ethnic Group Differences

Women continue to receive fewer doctoral and first-professional degrees than men, even though women receive more bachelor’s degrees. The underrepresentation of women holds even after allowing for time to complete an advanced degree. For example, women received 55% of the bachelor’s degrees that were awarded in 1994–95 but only 44% of the doctoral degrees and 45% of the first-professional degrees that were awarded five years later in 1999-00 (NCES,2002).1 African Americans also represented smaller shares of doctoral and first-professional degree recipients in 1999-00 than of bachelor’s degree recipients in 1994–95 (5.0% and 6.9% versus 7.5%, NCES, 2002). Hispanics represented a smaller share of doctoral degree recipients (2.9%) but a comparable share of first-professional degrees (4.8%) in 1999-00 than of bachelor’s degrees in 1994–95 (4.7%, NCES, 2002).