AIBM — Degrees of Difference: male college enrollment and completion

What the study found

The American Institute for Boys and Men compiles federal and other data on how men and women fare in US higher education. It reports that in 2021 men received 42% of the bachelor's degrees awarded in the United States — the lowest male share on record, and roughly the same as the 43% of degrees that went to women back in 1970. Alongside this, the report notes 2.4 million more female than male undergraduates (8.9 million versus 6.5 million), a four-year graduation rate of 54% for women versus 43% for men (68% versus 61% over six years), and that in 2022, 66% of female high school graduates enrolled immediately in college versus 57% of male graduates. ^[1]

in 2021 men received 42% of bachelor's degrees awarded in the United States, the lowest male share on record

^[1]

Why it matters here

Claims that women now dominate higher education are common in manosphere discussion of a male "education gap." This report assembles evidence that women do currently outnumber men both in enrolment and in degree completion, and that the shift has been large over recent decades. It presents these figures descriptively rather than attributing the gap to any single cause. It is cited on do women now outnumber men in college? as NGO-compiled evidence on enrollment and graduation outcomes by sex.