Compared to their higher-achieving peers, students with lower pre-college grades and test scores are more likely to choose to major in a field where their gender is overrepresented, according to a new study led by scholars at New York University.
The research team analyzed two large and nationally representative datasets collected by the U.S. Department of Education to analyze patterns of high school performance and college major selection and persistence among straight cisgender men and women and LGBTQ+ men and women. Combined, these datasets included information on more than 19,000 students.
In male-majority majors, straight cisgender men with below-average high school grades and test scores were significantly overrepresented compared to their straight cisgender female peers with similar levels of academic performance. That gender gap narrowed substantially among the highest-achieving students. Notably, LGBTQ+ men were underrepresented in these male-majority majors.
In female-majority fields, the authors found a similar gender gap among students with below-average pre-college grades. However, unlike the trend in LGBTQ+ men’s representation in male-majority majors, some models showed that LGBTQ+ women tend to be overrepresented in women-dominated fields among students with the highest pre-college achievement.
“Across both datasets, we found evidence that when there was a representation gap that varied across the achievement distribution, that gap tended to be more in favor of the major’s historically dominant demographic group among the students with lower pre-college grades and test scores — and less so at other points in the distribution,” said lead author Joseph Cimpian, professor of economics and education policy at NYU. “Those gaps tend to narrow considerably among the students with the strongest pre-college performance, highlighting the importance of looking more closely at how these gaps differ by achievement level rather than just overall representation to better understand who is entering these different fields.”
In addition to those from NYU, the research team included authors from Apt Global in Maryland, Boston University, and the Korean Educational Development Institute.