Women Almost Match Men in Earning Bachelor's Degrees, Census Finds

The Chronicle of Higher Education
By Jill Laster
April 20, 2010

Women have nearly caught up to their male counterparts in achieving at least a bachelor's degree, according to data released on Tuesday by the U.S. Census Bureau.
About 29 percent of women 25 and older had attained at least a bachelor's degree in 2009, compared with 30 percent of men. A decade earlier, the proportions were 23 percent and 28 percent, respectively.
The census data are part of an annual survey measuring national educational attainment that the agency has conducted since 1947. This year's report on the data used a sampling of 100,000 addresses gathered as part of the Current Population Survey's Annual Social and Economic Supplement.
The pattern of women's academic achievement outdoing men's, on average, goes back more than a decade, and is now expressing itself in the awarding of both undergraduate and graduate degrees. According to the newly reported data, young women have widened the gap in achieving postsecondary degrees in the past decade. In 2009, 35 percent of women ages 25 to 29 held at least a bachelor's degree, compared with 27 percent of men. A decade earlier, the numbers were much closer: 30 percent versus 27 percent.

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