--- title: "U.S. women near milestone in the college-educated labor force" description: "This year will likely be the first year in which women are a majority of the U.S. college-educated labor force." date: "2019-06-20" authors: - name: "Richard Fry" job_title: "Senior Researcher" link: "https://www.pewresearch.org/staff/richard-fry/" url: "https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2019/06/20/u-s-women-near-milestone-in-the-college-educated-labor-force/" categories: - "Business & Workplace" - "Economics, Work & Gender" - "Education" - "Education & Gender" - "Educational Attainment" - "Gender" - "Gender & LGBTQ" - "Gender & Work" --- # U.S. women near milestone in the college-educated labor force ![](https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/FT_19.06.19_CollegeEducatedWorkforce_feature.jpg) *(10'000 Hours via Getty Images)* *Note: For the latest data on *women in the college-educated labor force*, read [our 2022 post](https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2022/09/26/women-now-outnumber-men-in-the-u-s-college-educated-labor-force/).* Women are approaching a milestone in gender parity. 2019 will likely be the first year in which they are a majority of the college-educated labor force. As of the first quarter of 2019, 29.5 million women in the labor force had at least a bachelor’s degree, effectively matching the number of college-educated men in the workforce (29.3 million), according to a new Pew Research Center analysis of data from the [U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics](https://data.bls.gov/PDQWeb/ln). [![Women are now half of the U.S. college-educated labor force](https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2019/06/FT_19.06.20_WomenLaborForce_Women-now-half-of-US-college-educated-labor-force-2.png?w=310)](https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2019/06/20/u-s-women-near-milestone-in-the-college-educated-labor-force/ft_19-06-20_womenlaborforce_women-now-half-of-us-college-educated-labor-force-2-png/) This milestone matters for women because educational attainment is highly correlated with income. Women now comprise 50.2% of the college-educated labor force, up from 45.1% in 2000. They [remain less than half](https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2017/01/31/women-may-never-make-up-half-of-the-u-s-workforce/) (46.7%) of the overall workforce ages 25 and older. While women have only recently reached parity with men in the college-educated workforce, they have been a majority of college-educated adults for more than a decade. Women first received more than half of the [bachelor’s degrees](https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d17/tables/dt17_318.10.asp?current=yes) awarded in the 1981-82 academic year; today they earn about 57% of bachelor’s degrees. The [number of college-educated women](https://www.census.gov/data/tables/time-series/demo/educational-attainment/cps-historical-time-series.html) in the adult population (ages 25 and older) surpassed the number of college-educated men in 2007. Since there are more college-educated women than men, why has it taken more than 10 years for women to reach parity in the college-educated workforce? One important factor is that college-educated women are less likely than their male counterparts to be in the labor force. In 2018, 69.9% of college-educated women were in the labor force, compared with 78.1% of college-educated men. The number of women with at least a bachelor’s degree would have had to significantly outstrip the number of college-educated men to offset this labor force participation difference. Though women are at parity with men in the overall college-educated labor force, they lag significantly behind in [many specific occupations](https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2018/01/09/stem-appendix-detailed-tables-and-charts/). For example, women account for only 25% of college-educated workers in computer occupations and 15% of college-educated workers in engineering occupations. In some other occupations, such as office and administrative support and health care practitioners and technicians, women represent the majority of college-educated workers. Women’s growing representation among the college-educated labor force has important economic implications for individual workers and the economy. [Census Bureau figures](https://www.census.gov/data/tables/time-series/demo/income-poverty/cps-pinc/pinc-03.html) show that the typical worker (ages 25 and older) earned $41,900 in 2017, but a worker with at least a bachelor’s degree earned $61,300. (The earnings bump associated with a bachelor’s degree is larger for men than women. The median earnings of college-educated men is $74,900, compared with $50,200 for men overall. The typical college-educated woman earns $51,600, versus $36,000 for women overall.) About a third (35%) of U.S. adults 25 and older are college educated, but these individuals generate 57% of the economy’s earnings – $4.7 trillion out of $8.4 trillion total labor market earnings in 2017. U.S. women may be far from parity in many facets of society – particularly in [top positions](https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/fact-sheet/the-data-on-women-leaders/) in business and government – but they are making inroads in the upper echelon of the labor market. The growing number of college-educated women in the labor force translates into greater earning potential for women overall and could eventually contribute to the narrowing of the [gender wage gap](https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2019/03/22/gender-pay-gap-facts/).