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Title: Engineering the Gender Gap: Fall of Women’s Share in Computer Science

Citation Type: Miscellaneous

Publication Year: 2019

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Abstract: This paper explores the formation of gender norms in preferences for academic fields, and shows how these norms constrain women’s allocative ability to pursue computer science degrees. I hypothesize that historical development in women’s education contributed to the gendered preferences in college major choices. As an example, I document that the curriculum of home economics, a female-targeted college major created in the late nineteenth century, correlates with women’s contemporary tendency to major in psychology, chemistry, biology, and public health. To show that theses norms still influences women’s major choices today, I study the gender assortment in computer science (CS). I take advantage of CS’s multiple departmental affiliations, some farther away from the gender norm than others. Using a novel panel dataset on the university department hierarchy from 1980 to 2010, I found that the percentage of women earning CS bachelor’s degrees decreases when the CS department moves from colleges of liberal arts and sciences to the traditionally masculine domain of schools of engineering.

Url: https://www.dropbox.com/s/0ebwcxss5cc8crd/Zhao_jmp_northwestern.pdf?dl=0

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Authors: Zhao, Yiling

Publisher: Northwestern University

Data Collections: IPUMS USA

Topics: Education, Gender

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