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Women, Minorities in US Earning More PhDs Women and minorities continue to
receive PhDs at record levels, according to a recently
published survey. The number of people awarded PhDs in
the US has been steadily rising since 1986 and in 1996,
women made up 40% of all doctorate recipients and US
minority citizens made up 13%.
According to the survey,
conducted in 1996 by the National Research Council,
students are increasingly getting PhDs in engineering,
the fastest growing field since 1986. In 1996, 8,255
doctorates were awarded in life sciences, 6,814 in social
sciences, 6,772 in education, 6,675 in physical sciences,
6,305 in engineering, 5,116 in humanities and 2,478 in
other professional fields.
Women earned a record
16,945 PhDs, constituting 47 percent of US citizens
earning doctorates. As in past years, women outnumbered
men in education and, for the second year in a row, in
social sciences. Men outnumbered women in every other
broad field and by a large margin in engineering.
The number of blacks
earning PhDs in 1996 (1,315) sustained the 19 percent
increase of 1995 (1,309) over 1994 (1,101). The number of
Asians earning PhDs decreased from 1995 to 1996, but the
1996 figure of 1,091 is still 15 percent more than in
1994. Hispanics earned a record 950 doctorates, and the
number of American Indians jumped from 149 in 1995 to a
record 186 in 1996. The fields with the largest
percentage of minorities were education, in which blacks
were the predominant minority group, and engineering, in
which Asians were.
Although the number of
PhDs is increasing, the proportion of PhDs reporting
definite postgraduation commitments has declined, from
almost three-quarters in the 1970s to two-thirds in the
mid-1990s. Those with commitments are increasingly
electing to do postdoctoral study -- and those with
employment plans are increasingly heading for jobs in
industry over academia.
Links:
1st appeared 4/08/98
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