Missouri Ranks High in Women Doctoral Graduates
Women comprised 47.0 percent of doctoral graduates at Missouri institutions in 2008, higher than the national average of 46.1 percent. Among border states, Missouri ranked third in having the highest percentage of women doctoral graduates, following Kansas (53.3%) and Tennessee (49.4%).
In Missouri, the highest number of women doctoral graduates were in the field of Education (66.0%) followed by Social Science (54.2%), Other Fields (52.8%) and Life Science (50.4%).
The portion of doctoral graduates that are female in Missouri was higher than the national average in 2008. Although the Physical Science and Engineering fields typically have a smaller portion of female graduates, Missouri exceeds the national average in those fields as well.
| Percentage of Women Doctorates in 2008 by Field of Study | ||||||||
| State | Total | Life Science | Physical Science | Social Science | Engineering | Education | Humanities | Other fields |
| Kansas | 53.3% | 60.0% | 36.9% | 60.5% | 20.5% | 63.6% | 58.1% | 57.1% |
| Tennessee | 49.4% | 53.4% | 29.9% | 57.7% | 20.2% | 73.2% | 41.7% | 55.3% |
| Missouri | 47.0% | 50.4% | 31.5% | 54.2% | 22.4% | 66.0% | 48.7% | 52.8% |
| Arkansas | 46.6% | 48.0% | 28.6% | D | 26.3% | D | 42.9% | 50.0% |
| Iowa | 46.0% | 49.3% | 28.3% | 61.4% | 22.2% | 74.7% | 35.2% | 58.7% |
| Kentucky | 45.1% | 52.0% | 30.9% | 58.5% | 15.5% | 63.9% | 44.4% | 35.9% |
| Illinois | 43.5% | 51.3% | 22.6% | 58.7% | 19.9% | 66.1% | 46.0% | 50.6% |
| Oklahoma | 39.7% | 43.0% | 11.9% | 50.0% | 18.4% | 58.6% | 41.4% | 41.4% |
| United States | 46.1% | 52.9% | 27.9% | 58.4% | 21.5% | 67.1% | 52.2% | 48.7% |
| D = suppressed to avoid disclosure of confidential information. | ||||||||
In 2008, Missouri had 414 women complete doctorates in all fields follwing Illinois (1,028). Following were Tennessee (389), Iowa (319), Kansas (236), Kentucky (202), Oklahoma (143) and Arkansas (89).
| Total of Doctorates Granted in All Fields of Study 2008 | |||
| State | Male | Female | Total |
| Illinois | 1,334 | 1,028 | 2,362 |
| Missouri | 466 | 414 | 880 |
| Tennessee | 399 | 389 | 788 |
| Iowa | 374 | 319 | 693 |
| Kansas | 207 | 236 | 443 |
| Kentucky | 246 | 202 | 448 |
| Oklahoma | 217 | 143 | 360 |
| Arkansas | 102 | 89 | 191 |
| United States | 26,271 | 22,496 | 48,767 |
Nationally, there has been a growing trend of females obtaining doctoral degrees, increasing from 27.0 percent in 1978 to 46.1 percent in 2008. The year 2008 marked the 13th consecutive year in which the representation of female doctorate recipients had surpassed 40 percent. The proportion of doctorates earned by women has also grown consistently each year within all of the broad fields of study according to the National Science Foundation.
