Percentage of Female Harvard Ph.D.s Below National Average

Women received more doctoral degrees than men did during the 2008-2009 academic year—a finding from which Harvard’s Graduate School of Arts slightly diverged by awarding only 40.9 percent of its doctoral degrees to women in the same year.

The report on American universities, released last week by the Council of Graduate Schools, stated that 50.4 percent of doctoral degrees during the 2008-2009 school year were earned by women, indicating a rise in the number of women awarded doctorates by 6.3 percent from the previous year.

Women received 60.4 percent of master’s degrees and 67.3 percent of all graduate certificates during that time period, according to the report. At the same time, however, the number of women earning doctoral degrees from Harvard’s GSAS decreased by 12.9 percent.

The numbers vary from one department of GSAS to another. GSAS Assistant Dean John M. McNally said that women traditionally make up about half of the student body in the Integrated Life Sciences Graduate Program.

The Harvard Business School, which awards more MBAs than doctoral degrees, is the only school in the University that has a lower ratio of women to men than GSAS does. During the 2008-2009 academic year, HBS awarded 35.7 percent of its degrees to women, an increase from 34.2 percent in the previous year.

According to the Council of Graduate Schools, women received 55 percent of the graduate certificates awarded in the U.S. in the broad field of business in the academic year ending 2009.

James E. Aisner ’68, the director of media relations at HBS, said that though the proportion of women receiving degrees from HBS may seem small, it is important to consider the figure in context. The average age of the entering student in HBS is 26—an age at which “people also begin to think about starting a family,” he said.

HBS makes efforts to encourage women to submit applications, he added. Aisner said that admissions officers visit college campuses and that women graduates have founded many alumnae groups.

Of all the schools at the University, the Harvard Graduate School of Education, which awards some Ph.D.s among many other degrees, awards the largest proportion of its degrees to women.

During the 2008-2009 year, women received 79.2 percent of its degrees. During the same year, women received 73 percent of graduate certificates awarded in the U.S. in the field of education, according to the report.

The proportion of women receiving degrees from other Harvard graduate schools during the 2008-2009 academic year ranged from 43 to 58.1 percent.