Exploring the Experiences of College Women in Fields with Disparities in Gender Representation

Abstract

Although women earn over half of all bachelor’s degrees in the United States, they are not equally represented across fields of study. Research on gender segregation in higher education has expanded, but this primarily quantitative work tends to neglect the voices of the college women who are experiencing gender-segregated settings firsthand. Our research explores the experiences of women majoring in fields where gender representation is unequal. Sixteen women undergraduates took part in interviews, with half coming from majors classified as women-minority, and half from majors designated as women-majority. Findings demonstrate that women in women-minority majors and women in women-majority majors differ in how they describe their experiences around three themes: relationships with classmates, relationships with professors, and the emotional impact of major demographics. This article concludes by exploring implications for higher education.

Keywords

• college women
• gender representation
• majors
• field of study
• STEM
• humanities