The Effects of Coeducation on Women’s College Major Choices

Summary of the research article: Calkins, A., Binder, A. J., Shaat, D., & Timpe, B. (2023). When Sarah Meets Lawrence: The Effects of Coeducation on Women’s College Major Choices. American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 15(3), 1-34.

Topics: Educational role of women’s colleges, women’s majoring behaviours, impact of coeducation

Summary by Leïla Costil, Research assistant

What is the impact of mixed-gender educational environments on women’s choices of field of study? How do the choices of a fixed group of women respond to coeducation-induced changes in the collegiate environment? This study aims at estimating the effects of adopting coeducation on the distribution of fields studied by graduating women at historical women’s colleges, and studying the mechanisms underlying such these effects. Read the original article.

Summary

This study examines the impact of US women’s colleges becoming coeducational on women’s major choices. The researchers found significant decreases in women majoring in STEM-related fields, economics and business, which they attribute mostly to the increase in the share of men in the student body, and the decrease in female role models among faculty.

Data

The researchers constructed a dataset identifying all bachelor degree–granting women’s colleges that transitioned to coeducation beginning in the 1960s, and their dates of transition. They found a sample of 77 “treated” institutions, which then created the treatment group. They also rely on data from the Higher Education General Information Survey (HEGIS) and the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), which provide information on the number of degrees awarded by year, institution, major, and gender. To examine the effect of coeducation on the characteristics of newly enrolled women, the researchers use panel information on the underlying abilities and curricular preferences of women and their peers from the CIRP Freshman Survey, which is produced by the Higher Education Research Institute (HERI) at UCLA. 

Methodology

Researchers use a difference-in-difference research design to compare the evolution of majoring behaviours of students at newly coeducational colleges to behaviours of students at women’s colleges. Using the evolution of students’ major choices in women-only colleges as a control, they examine the changes in majoring behaviours in colleges that became coeducational, controlling for other factors. That way, any difference in the evolution of the control and study groups can be attributed to the transition from women-only to coeducational systems and the inclusion of boys in the student body.

Findings

Coeducation significantly alters the distribution of fields chosen by graduating women. In the ten years following the arrival of coeducational classes in a school, the percentage of women majoring in STEM degrees decreased by 3.0-3.5 percentage points (corresponding to a 30-33% decrease). The change also significantly decreased the share of women majoring in economics and in business. Alternatively, the share of women majoring in psychology, health, and social sciences (apart from economics) increased. Overall, the study shows that a change from women-only classes to coeducational classes leads women to major less in fields typically considered as masculine, and more in stereotypical feminine fields. The way gender is performed and understood in coeducational colleges has a significant impact on women’s majoring and career choices. 

These changes could be driven by two main effects: an environmental effect (which describes the changes to the students’ environment, such as increases in the male share of the student body and faculty, changes in the educational input, etc.), and a composition effect (changes in the abilities or preferences of the women in the student body). The researchers find however that the composition effect played a limited role, and could account for at most 16 to 32% of the total effect of coeducation on the share of women earning degrees in STEM-related fields. When studying the environmental effect, they find that the change to coeducation did not motivate changes in gender-neutral characteristics of schools: there was no significant change in the menu of degree options offered to students, levels of competition in STEM-related classrooms, etc. They find however significant changes in the share of male students and (to a lesser extent) of male faculty staff. Overall, they find that the decline of women pursuing STEM-related majors following the change to coeducation was mainly due to changes in the campuses’ environment - the most important change being the arrival of male peers. Finally, extrapolating their results, the researchers suggest that the exposure to coeducational environments explains 36% of the contemporary gender gaps in STEM major choices. Finally, the researchers suggest that universities should implement programs such as mentoring of women students by other women, to compensate for the changes.