The Effect of Peer Gender on Major Choice and Occupational Segregation

Jan Feld | Victoria University of Wellington

This paper investigates how the peer gender composition in university affects students’ major choices and labor market outcomes. Women who are randomly assigned to more female peers become less likely to choose male-dominated majors and end up in jobs where they earn less but are more satisfied. Men become more likely to choose male-dominated majors when exposed to more female peers, but their labor market outcomes are not affected. Our results suggest that the increase in female university enrolment over the last decades has paradoxically contributed to the occupational segregation among university graduates that persists in today’s labor market.