- Female graduate students in psychology outnumber males by approximately three to one1 and have done so for more than a decade.2
- Averaging across all doctoral programs (both PhD and PsyD degrees), women account for more than 74 percent of enrolled students, but there is some variability across subfields. In cognitive psychology programs, women represent 54 percent of enrolled students and men 46 percent. Meanwhile, in school and developmental psychology programs, women account for 85 percent and 82 percent of enrolled students, respectively.
- There are also more women than men across all terminal master’s-level psychology programs3 (78 percent to 22 percent). In some subfields, the ratio of women to men is even higher at the master’s level than at the doctoral level.
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1 Graduate Study in Psychology is an annual survey conducted by APA’s Office of Graduate and Postgraduate Education and Training. For the 2017–18 cycle, a total of 476 departments or schools in the U.S. and Canada provided responses on 1,437 programs in psychology.
2 Cope, C., et al. (2016). Summary report, APA Graduate Study in Psychology 2017: Student demographics. APA Office of Graduate and Postgraduate Education and Training. Retrieved from www.apa.org/education/grad/survey-data/2017-student-demographics .
3 "Terminal master’s programs" refers to psychology programs where the highest degree offered is a master’s and does not include data when a student receives
