Same Major, Different Peers: Gender Sorting Across and Within Majors
Prior studies have found persistent gender segregation across majors in higher education. We build on this literature by documenting segregation within majors through examining student experiences at a student-by-course level. We measure the variation in the proportion of students’ classmates who ar...
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| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
SAGE Publishing
2025-07-01
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| Series: | AERA Open |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1177/23328584251355604 |
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| Summary: | Prior studies have found persistent gender segregation across majors in higher education. We build on this literature by documenting segregation within majors through examining student experiences at a student-by-course level. We measure the variation in the proportion of students’ classmates who are their same gender and explore which levels of sorting explain this variation. We observed that considerable variation persists within majors: 61% of the variation in the proportion of same-gender peers arises from within-major variation for female students, and 48% for male students. We also find that sorting by gender is more prevalent for certain groups of students. Our study offers a guide for measuring this phenomenon in various campus contexts, examining how curricular choice can affect student sorting within majors. This study suggests that previous work examining sorting only at the major level misses some important opportunities for understanding the mechanisms through which gender segregation occurs in higher education. |
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| ISSN: | 2332-8584 |