Women Making Gains in College, But Not in History

Women now comprise 55 percent of undergraduates and 60 percent of graduate students, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. But a sample of over 500 schools from the latest Department of Education data shows that women are receiving only 40.3 percent of bachelors degrees in history. What is keeping large numbers of women from majoring in history?

If the overall proportion of women enrolled receives a ten percent boost in moving from undergraduate to graduate school, this is hardly the case for history. In a recent article in the AHA’s Perspectives, Rob Townsend reported that women received 40.8 percent of the doctorates awarded by history departments. So it seems that the barriers women face to majoring in history at the undergraduate level are still very much in play at the graduate level.

The 2007 October School Enrollment Supplement to the Current Population Survey of the Census Bureau shows that part of the answer lies in who makes it to graduate school. Hispanics comprise 15.1 percent of the U.S. population, but only 4.38 percent of graduate students in the U.S. Similarly, African Americans comprise 13.1 percent of the U.S. population, but only 6.72 percent of graduate students in the U.S. Within these two racial/ethnic groups, women comprise two thirds of those who are graduate students. If history graduate programs recruited more individuals from these underrepresented groups, this could increase the proportion of women studying history.

Another factor may be one that I have noticed anecdotally. When undergraduate women ask me about my major, and I tell them it is history, large numbers of them say history was their worst subject. When I ask why, they usually say that they weren't good at memorizing dates. But then they are usually quick to add that they enjoyed the stories. I wonder if this is commentary on how history is typically taught in our high schools. Are males socialized during high school into doing better at math, which then carries over into a perception that they are better than females at memorizing dates?

With a little more effort, the American Historical Association could help answer some of these questions. They could code the names in their Dissertation Directory by gender. This would give us a much better sense of how the proportion of ABD history students who are women is changing over time. They could use the Department of Education's IPEDS Dataset Cutting Tool (linked above) to identify colleges and universities where men and women tend to major in history at equal rates and then investigate the factors that cause this to happen. Conversely, the AHA could investigate schools where women are severely underrepresented among history majors and then examine the reasons for this disparity. Lastly, if our profession ever gets serious about vastly expanding our masters programs in history (which would help ease the job market crunch, by the way), the AHA could convene a task force to look into the barriers that undergraduate women face in choosing to major or go on in history.