Bar chart — Men and women in four fields of study, 1980 and 2005

The two bar charts give the numbers of men and women, in thousands, studying engineering, medicine, business and education at university in one country in 1980 and 2005.

Overall, the number of women rose in every field, allowing them to overtake men in medicine and all but catch up in business. Engineering nevertheless remained overwhelmingly male, while women formed the majority in education in both years.

In 1980, men outnumbered women in three fields, most strikingly in engineering, where 42,000 men studied alongside only 5,000 women, a more than eightfold difference. Business had 31,000 male students against 12,000 female ones, and in medicine the 18,000 men were exactly double the number of women. Education was the exception, with 27,000 women and 14,000 men.

By 2005, female enrolment in medicine had almost tripled to 26,000, overtaking the male figure of 21,000, while in business it had climbed to 41,000, only 3,000 short of the 44,000 men. Although women in engineering rose to 13,000, men, at 47,000, were still more than three times as numerous. Education saw the only fall, with men slipping to 11,000 while women reached 38,000. Taken together, the four fields had 118,000 women in 2005, more than double the 53,000 of 1980 and just 5,000 fewer than the male total.