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<blockquote> <p>"Harvard was ranked #6 overall in per undergrad female PhD production (this must have been Radcliffe). After deep-sixing Radcliffe and going co-ed, it fell to #29 for women in the decade of the 80's and continued to decline to #56 in the 90's."<<</p> </blockquote>
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<p>One change that occurred during this time is the opening up of the law firm field to women. During the 50's, Sandra Day O'Connor, after graduating near the top of her class at Stanford Law School, was told that the only job open for her at a big LA law firm was that of a legal secretary. In the early 1970s, the big LA and NY firms began to hire a few women. By the early 1980s, women in law firms were no big deal. By the late 1980s, women made up close to 50% of the classes at many law schools.</p>
<p>I'm sure that other good paying fields (like accounting, investment banking, etc.) opened up in similar ways after 1970. One explanation for the decrease of women PhDs could be that women have chosen to go into these lucrative fields now that they were open to them--fields that don't require a PhD.</p>