Women's Colleges 

Women's colleges were founded in the mid- to late 19th century to promote and expand educational opportunities for women (U.S. Department of Education 1997). The number of women's colleges in the United States is declining: while there were 188 in 1989, there are now only 73. Several women's colleges have closed or merged in the last decade; others have become coeducational (Reisberg 2000). Because of their small size (most have fewer than 2,500 students), women's colleges are not a major source of bachelor's degrees for women; this is true both for bachelor's degrees in general and for bachelor's degrees in S&E. About 2 percent of all bachelor's degrees awarded to women were earned at women's colleges in 1998. (See appendix table 3-5.) Some women's colleges do, however, produce large numbers of female S&E graduates. For example, Spelman College is the top institution granting bachelor's degrees to black women in S&E. Women's colleges are also among the top baccalaureate-origin institutions for S&E doctorate recipients (see chapter 5).

International Comparison of Women's Undergraduate Degrees 

Women earned a little more than half of first university degrees in all fields in Australia, Canada, France, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States. They earned less than half of all first university degrees in Germany, Japan, Korea, Mexico, and Turkey. See appendix table 3-7 and "International Comparison of Women's Undergraduate Enrollment" in chapter 2 on undergraduate enrollment.)

Across countries with field of degree data, women earned roughly similar proportions of degrees in some fields. For example, women earned between 54 and 64 percent of life science degrees in all countries providing data, and from 6 to 21 percent of engineering degrees. In other fields—for example, the physical sciences, mathematics, the agricultural sciences, and the social sciences—there were greater differences in the percentage of degrees awarded to women by country. Women earned a higher percentage of mathematics/statistics/computer science degrees in Italy, Korea, and Turkey than in most other countries. On the other hand, they earned a much lower percentage of social science degrees in Turkey and Korea than in most other countries.

Where Minorities Earn Their Degrees 

Some colleges and universities educate a disproportionate share of undergraduates who are members of racial/ethnic minorities. For example, America's historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) continue to play an important role in educating and producing black S&E bachelor's degree recipients. In 1998, as in 1990, 29 percent of the blacks who received bachelor's degrees in S&E earned them at HBCUs. (See appendix table 3-12.) HBCUs awarded 52 percent of the bachelor's degrees received by blacks in the agricultural sciences, 43 percent of those in both the physical sciences and mathematics, and 42 percent of those in the biological sciences in 1998. (See appendix table 3-12.)

About one-third of S&E bachelor's degrees to Hispanics are earned at Hispanic-serving institutions (HSIs). Unlike HBCUs, the institutions classified as HSIs are updated each year. Among the criteria for inclusion as an HSI, as per the Higher Education Act of 1965, as amended, and 20 U.S.C. 1059c, are that the institution has at least 25 percent Hispanic full-time undergraduate enrollment and that at least 50 percent of its Hispanic students are low income. Hispanics are particularly likely to earn bachelor's degrees in the physical sciences and biological sciences at HSIs—47 percent of the physical science and 42 percent of the biological science bachelor's degrees earned by Hispanics were awarded by HSIs in 1998. (See appendix table 3-13.)

Almost all of the S&E bachelor's degrees for American Indians are granted by non-tribal colleges. Tribal colleges and universities (TCUs), first established in the late 1960s, are academic institutions created and chartered, for the most part, by one or more tribes (U.S. ED/NCES 1998). As of 1998, there were 30 TCUs, most of which were located on Indian reservations. Only six TCUs are 4-year colleges or universities; the rest are 2-year schools. Of the six TCUs that offer bachelor's degrees, two offer baccalaureates in S&E. In 1998, those two awarded 16 bachelor's degrees to American Indians in science and none in engineering; 13 of these degrees were in the social sciences. (See appendix table 3-14.)