Increases early and in most (but not all) degree categories

Women earn more undergraduate and graduate degrees than men. In 2002-03 women earned 60 percent of all associate's degrees, 58 percent of all bachelor's degrees, and 59 percent of all master's degrees.

Today, women make up 48.3 percent of medical school matriculants. (up from 42.7 percent in 1996)

Today, women make up 46.7 percent of law students.
(Forty years ago, it was 6 percent. That number climbed to 34 percent in just 12 years.)

Women earn 45.1 percent of the doctoral degrees (across all fields).

"It's amazing what happens when you take the shackles off," said my mother, who earned an MBA (one of few women in the b-school at the time) and a PhD before having me.

But, in nearly every category of the sciences (engineering, physics, etc.), women lag behind men in getting PhDs.

Also, business schools continue to hover around 35 percent female enrollment. A 2004 Business Week article cites the lack of women in top board positions in business and the timing of the program (most b-school matriculants have a few years of work experience, unlike med school or law school, at which point more women are planning to start families). The article also mentioned salary considerations, gender stereo-typing of management and curriculums full of golf outings.