---
title: "Ladies First in Education"
description: "For the first time in U.S. history,  more women than men have college degrees."
date: "2010-03-22"
authors:
  - name: "Russell Heimlich"
    job_title: "Former web developer"
    link: "https://www.pewresearch.org/staff/russell-heimlich/"
url: "https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2010/03/22/ladies-first-in-education/"
---

# Ladies First in Education

Four decades ago nearly two-thirds of all college graduates were men (64%). Today’s makeup of college campuses looks drastically different, as a majority of graduates are now women. In 2007, fully 53.5% of all graduates were women while just 46.5% were men. More women than men have some college education but not a degree as well. As a result of the sharp increase in education, women today are also earning far more income than they were in 1970. Women’s earnings grew 44% from 1970 to 2007; men’s income only grew by 6%. This has narrowed the income gap between men and women, but has far from closed it. Median earnings of full-year female workers in 2007 were 71% of earnings of comparable men, compared with 52% in 1970. [Read More](https://www.pewresearch.org/pubs/1466/economics-marriage-rise-of-wives)