Degrees Awarded to Women, by Type, 1969-2000

The number of Bachelor’s Degrees awarded to women rose from less than 400,000 in 1969 to 707,508 in 2000. The number of Associate Degrees awarded to women rose from about 100,000 in 1969 to 340,212 in 2000. The number of First Professional Degrees* awarded to women rose from about 1,800 in 1969 to 35,818 in 2000. The number of Master’s Degrees awarded to women rose from about 100,000 in 1969 to 265,264 in 2000, while the number of Doctoral Degrees** awarded to women grew from about 1,800 in 1969 to 19,780 in 2000.

*Includes fields of dentistry (D.D.S. or D.M.D.), medicine (M.D.), optometry (O.D.), osteopathic medicine (D.O.), pharmacy (D.Phar.), podiatry (D.P.M.), veterinary medicine (D.V.M.), chiropractic (D.C. or D.C.M.), law (L.L.B. or J.D.), and theological professions (M.Div. or M.H.L.).
**Includes Doctor of Philosophy degree (Ph.D.), as we ll as degrees awarded for fulfilling specialized requirements in professional fields such as education (Ed.D.), musical arts (D.M.A.), business administration (D.B.A.), and engineering (D.Eng. or D.E.S.). First professional degrees, such as M.D., and D.D.S., are not included under this heading.

Source (I.3): U.S. Department of Education

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