Gender Segregation across Fields of Study in Post-Secondary Education: Trends and Social Differentials

This article examines whether gender segregation across fields of study in higher education varies between children coming from different socio-economic groups, and changed across time. A possible intersectionality between gender and socio-economic background has hardly been addressed thus far. Using Dutch survey data covering cohorts born between the 1930s and 1980s, I study trends in gender segregation across seven broad fields in post-secondary education, and examine whether gender segregation is different across parental educational levels. Segregation is found to diminish over time, although the trend has stalled. Segregation is, in some fields, less strong among children of higher social origins, both because higher-socio-economic status (SES) daughters are more likely to enrol in the science, technology, engineering, and math fields, and because higher-SES sons are more likely to enrol in health than their lower-SES counterparts. Tentative explanations for these findings are presented that relate to stronger gender-typical socialization in lower-SES families, and potential differential abilities in mathematics and languages across SES groups.