More women around the nation are hearing their names called at graduation than men are these days - even at UF.
Women surpassed men in earning bachelor's degrees nationally for the first time in 1996, but women had never earned more post-graduate degrees than men - until now.
Approximately 10.6 million U.S. women have post-graduate degrees compared to 10.5 million men.
Among adults 25 years and older, women are surpassing men in obtaining college degrees of all kinds for the first time ever, according to a recent report published by The Associated Press.
At UF, 8,132 women graduated last year, with 3,037 graduating with advanced degrees. This is in comparison with 7,159 male graduates, 2,952 of whom graduated with advanced degrees.
"We're bringing more women into higher education, so it makes sense that more women are earning their Ph.D.s," said Jeanna Mastrodicasa, assistant vice president for student affairs at UF.
For women, having more advanced degrees provides them with greater access to jobs and may mean women will be better protected against future recessions. The AP report also showed there were 3,479 more women enrolled at UF than there were men as of fall 2010. With about a 60 percent female freshman enrollment rate this year, UF's gender gap shows little sign of closing.
"Nobody seems to know why this is happening because nobody has done any research on it," said UF spokesman Steve Orlando. "There's a lot of theories on it."
