Gender-segregated trajectories to a university major and career-related motivation

Abstract

Women enroll in many university majors at a lower rate than men, which relates to inequities in many future career fields. To understand such disparities, we identified heterogeneous trajectories through which students change their majors in terms of the majors' gender ratios. Through the lens of situated expectancy-value theory, we examined changes in task value related to each trajectory. Trajectories were identified across all students from 2017 to 2020 (N = 23,328), a subset of whom (n = 2380) participated in surveys regarding their self-rated career aptitude and desired career attributes. We identified five trajectories of major enrollment in terms of gender ratio: stable-female, stable-male, stable-neutral, male-to-female, and female-to-neutral. Gender disparities were common across both STEM and non-STEM majors. Students on the male-to-female trajectory were much more likely to have a drop in their self-rated science aptitude and an increase in their desire for prosocial opportunities in their subsequent careers.