Description: Department Seminar

Location: 368A Heady Hall

Contact Person: Katie Harris-Lagoudakis

Title: Gender Differences in Choice of Educational Field: Evidence from the Danish National Clearinghouse

Abstract: Gender differences in college major explain a large share of the gender gap in earnings.  To study why men and women sort into different fields, we conduct a large-scale survey among almost 20,000 college applicants in Denmark, asking them what they expect to happen if they are assigned to each of their top choices from their submission to the national clearinghouse.  We find that both men and women expect that if they major in fields with more women, they will have lower earnings and higher probabilities of finding a partner and becoming a parent. In contrast, only women expect higher educational and work satisfaction in fields with more women.  Men do not expect a relationship between the gender composition of a field and their satisfaction with it.  We structurally estimate preferences over earnings, family outcomes, and educational/work satisfaction and find that women put more weight on family outcomes than men.  However, these gender differences in preferences do little to explain differences in choice of major. Instead, of the factors we consider, 73% (17%) of the gender difference in major choice in our model is driven by women expecting a larger tradeoff than men between how female a major is and educational (work) satisfaction.  Our results suggest that women are deterred from male dominated fields largely due to expectations about poor classroom and workplace experiences.  Our findings inform policies aimed at shifting the gender composition of college majors and subsequent gender earnings gaps.