@article{336bb0ded990475f999afd2e51772f08,
title = "Gender Equity in College Majors: Looking Beyond the STEM/Non-STEM Dichotomy for Answers Regarding Female Participation",
abstract = "Women are underrepresented in many science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) majors and in some non-STEM majors (e.g., philosophy). Combining newly gathered data on students{\textquoteright} perceptions of college major traits with data from the Education Longitudinal Study of 2002 (ELS:2002), we find that perceived gender bias against women emerges as the dominant predictor of the gender balance in college majors. The perception of the major being math or science oriented is less important. We replicate these findings using a separate sample to measure college major traits. Results suggest the need to incorporate major-level traits in research on gender gaps in college major choices and the need to recognize the impact of perceptions of potential gender discrimination on college major choices.",
keywords = "STEM, gender, higher education, propensity score matching",
author = "Ganley, {Colleen M.} and George, {Casey E.} and Cimpian, {Joseph R.} and Makowski, {Martha B.}",
note = "Funding Information: Supplementary material for this article is available online. This study is based on work supported by the Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education (Grant No. R305B100017 to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) and a grant to Dr. Cimpian from the National Academy of Education/Spencer Foundation. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Institute, the U.S. Department of Education, the National Academy of Education, or the Spencer Foundation. We would like to thank Andrei Cimpian and Sarah Lubienski for helpful comments on previous drafts. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2017, {\textcopyright} 2017 AERA.",
year = "2018",
month = jun,
day = "1",
doi = "10.3102/0002831217740221",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "55",
pages = "453--487",
journal = "American Educational Research Journal",
issn = "0002-8312",
publisher = "SAGE Publications Ltd",
number = "3",
}