In recent years, women have continued to outpace men in earning college degrees at North Carolina’s public post-secondary institutions. However, new data shows that the trends are beginning to shift.
Two decades ago, women were more than twice as likely as men to earn associate degrees, with a 2.2-to-1 ratio. By the period from 2017 to 2023, this gap had narrowed to 1.6-to-1.
For bachelor’s degrees, women have consistently outnumbered men by about 40% over the past twenty years. In the academic years of 2022–2023, this difference increased temporarily to 50%.
Master’s degree attainment has shown some fluctuation in gender ratios but has generally remained around 1.6 women for every man.
Doctoral programs have seen a gradual increase in female recipients over time. The ratio of women to men rose from 0.9 in 2003 to 1.2 in 2023.
“while women continue to dominate higher education in North Carolina, the nature of that trend is evolving.”
Additional data and insights can be found on NC TOWER (https://tower.nc.gov/).
