Gender Segregation and Decision-Making in Undergraduate Course-Taking

Abstract

Gender segregation across fields of study is a persistent problem in higher education. Although a large body of literature has illustrated both gendered patterns in major choice as well as overall gender segregation across academic majors, comparatively less attention has been paid to an important building block for gender inequality: college courses. In this study, we examine the process of how students choose courses and the implications for gender segregation. Drawing on a unique data set that includes individual-level consideration and choice data from an entire cohort of university students choosing their first college courses, we examine both gender segregation at the college course level as well as the extent to which individual decision-making processes are themselves gendered. We find that course gender composition serves as a screener at the consideration stage, which suggests that gender segregation in decision-making emerges at the outset of the choice process. Once a subset of considered options has been established, final choices are much less influenced by course gender compositions. Furthermore, we find that courses are much more gender-segregated, on average, than majors themselves, illustrating that segregation is occurring at a more microlevel than commonly studied.