In 2018, underrepresented minority women received more associate’s degrees in science and in S&E technologies than did their male counterparts. Men from underrepresented groups, however, received more associate’s degrees in engineering than did females from those respective groups. Underrepresented women and men together received almost a third of associate’s degrees in S&E technologies—science, engineering, health, and other technologies that prepare students for skilled technical jobs, which are an important part of the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) workforce (figure 22).

As noted above, at each degree level—bachelor’s, master’s, and doctorate—underrepresented minority women earned a higher share of S&E degrees than did underrepresented minority men. However, in these groups, more men than women earned degrees in engineering at the three degree levels. Over the past decade, the share of both underrepresented minority women and men receiving S&E bachelor’s degrees steadily increased, although there was a slight decline since 2016 in both the shares and number of women and men with doctorates (figure 23).

Hispanic or Latino women earned a higher share of bachelor’s degrees in psychology, social sciences, and biological and agricultural sciences than in other S&E fields. The share of the bachelor’s degrees they earn in these three broad fields increased rapidly since 2008. The share of Hispanic or Latino women receiving bachelor’s degrees in engineering and computer sciences increased only slightly over time. Nevertheless, these shares represent about 3,200 Hispanic or Latino women receiving bachelor’s degrees in engineering in 2018 and about 1,500 in computer sciences (figure 24).

Black or African American women, similar to Hispanic or Latino women, earned a higher share of bachelor’s degrees in psychology, social sciences, and biological and agricultural sciences than they did in any other broad S&E field. Their shares in these fields and other S&E fields were stable despite an increase in their numbers in these fields. The number of Black or African American women who received S&E bachelor’s degrees increased from 26,229 in 2008 to 34,359 in 2018, a 31.0% increase, somewhat trailing the 37.7% increase in bachelor’s degrees in S&E awarded to U.S. citizens and permanent residents over the same period. In 2018, Black or African American women received over 1,200 bachelor’s degrees in engineering, one of the fields with low shares of Black or African American female participation, which was the peak number of recipients over the previous decade (figure 25).

A small minority group that is not always presented in detail due to numerical constraints is Native Hawaiians or Other Pacific Islanders. A total of 1,379 bachelor’s degrees in S&E fields were awarded to individuals in this group in 2018 (from a total of more than 660,000 S&E bachelor’s degrees), down from a peak of 1,611 in 2015. Social sciences, biological and agricultural sciences, and psychology had the most female Native Hawaiians or Other Pacific Islanders bachelor’s degree recipients, whereas men most frequently studied social sciences, engineering, and computer sciences. In 2018, slightly more Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander women received bachelor’s degrees in S&E than their male counterparts (figure 26).

Asian women earned their largest number of S&E bachelor’s degrees in biological and agricultural sciences (almost 12,000 graduates in 2018, and 7.8% of the field). In most S&E fields, the shares of Asian women have slowly increased over the past few years, with the exception of computer sciences where the number of graduates more than tripled in the past 5 years. Despite relatively small numbers in mathematics and statistics, Asian women received over 1,300 bachelor’s degrees in this field in 2018, 5.8% of the field and almost double the number in 2011. Likewise, in earth and physical sciences, Asian women received over 1,300 bachelor’s degrees, 4.6% of the field in 2018 (figure 27).