Fields of Study

Women have become the majority of students in higher education in many countries, and have closed but not eliminated gender segregation within fields of study or majors. Women students still comprise a minority in nontraditional fields of study, such as business, engineering, information technology, mathematics, and the physical sciences, but have enjoyed larger percentage gains in many of these fields than men due to their previous underrepresentation. Gender stereotypes and gendered educational experiences that limit choice of fields of study show up early in the educational process and have lasting impacts. Gender inequities within fields of study can have long reaching impacts on career opportunities, earnings, and composition of the labor force.

Women have attained much greater access to higher education since the mid-to late-20th century. Women comprise the majority of undergraduate students and degree recipients at the college and university level, and held higher grade point averages and other measures of achievement in many countries. According to the U.S. National Center for Education Statistics, women received 57 percent of U.S. bachelor's degrees awarded in the 2004-05 academic year. In Europe, women comprise 56 percent of all higher education graduates, but are a minority of graduates in the sciences and other male-dominated fields. The percentages are even lower in many low-income and developing countries.

Despite the achievement of gender parity in enrollment and completion rates, however, fields of study and majors pursued remained segregated by gender although the gap has narrowed since the mid-20th century. The 2001 U.S. National Assessment of Educational Progress showed that the gender gap in enrollment and performance in nontraditional fields such as science has been eliminated at the lower educational levels, but reappears and widens at higher educational levels. Gender inequities in fields of study and career paths grow larger higher up the educational ladder, in what some researchers have termed the “shrinking pipeline.”

Gender segregation in fields of study can be found in both academic and professional (trade or vocational) education. Female-dominated academic fields of study include the humanities, the fine and performing arts, education, foreign languages, literature, professional fields, and social and life sciences, while male-dominated fields of study include business, engineering, mathematics, information technology, and the physical sciences. Female-dominated vocational fields of study include family and consumer sciences (home economics), clerical and general office work, and beauty careers, such as cosmetology and hairdressing. Maledominated vocational fields of study include industrial, mechanical, and construction fields.

U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) statistics show that in 2005, women comprised 22 percent of U.S. bachelor's degrees in computer science (information technology), 43 percent of U.S. bachelor's degrees in the physical sciences, and 45 percent of U.S. bachelor's degrees in mathematics and statistics. The percentages of female majors in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics drop even further at the graduate levels.

Women also experienced the drop in majors that occurred among all students, beginning in the late 20th century, within education, the social sciences, and liberal arts, and the rise in majors within engineering and business. Women in engineering and business experienced even more dramatic percentage gains than men due to their previous relative absence in these fields of study, although they still remain minorities in these majors. Some of these gains have [Page 554]been lost, however, in the early 21st century. The percentages for female mathematics, statistics, and computer science bachelor's degree recipients in the United States all showed declines in that period.

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