In most OECD countries, women now outnumber men in higher education. However, the gender pay gap persists on the labour market. There is some evidence that the pay gap starts right after graduation. For instance, in France, the average gender pay gap across fields of study is 4.8% eighteen months after graduation for students with a Master’s degree. In my research, I try to understand how students’ educational choices at the university level explain different labour market outcomes for men and women.
Gender differences in fields of study
First, I analyse gender differences in the fields that students choose to study. Women tend to specialise in fields that lead to lower-paying jobs, where there are higher unemployment rates, and fewer opportunities for upward career trajectories. Even within high-paying fields such as economics, women tend to specialise in areas that lead to lower paying jobs. In France, the country where I have conducted most of my studies, I find that the largest gender pay gap is in economics: thirty months after obtaining a Master’s degree in economics, women earn 12% less than men. One of the reasons why the gap is so large in this field is because female students are underrepresented in specialisations such as banking or finance. Why are there these gender differences in fields of study?
Lack of female role models
Gender stereotypes are one explanation. Research suggests that a lack of female instructors, who could act as role models in some fields of study such as economics, may discourage women from pursuing studies in these fields. Research suggests that average female students in introductory courses in economics may choose less often to pursue a Master’s degree in economics compared to average male students. The dropout rate of female students may be reduced when the introductory instructor is a woman. In this stereotypically male field, the gender of the instructor appears to have less of an impact on male students’ choices to pursue a Master’s degree in economics.
Higher education and career opportunities
Second, even within a given field of study and specialisation, male and female students make higher educational choices that can have a large impact on their career opportunities and future earnings. Competition among students and self-confidence are likely to play a role in students’ choices. At university, students benefit from unique opportunities to explore their academic interests. Yet, higher education is a competitive environment: students compete to get into top academic programs, in order to benefit from better labour market opportunities. The economics literature suggests that competitive environments tend to be more favourable to men than to women, especially in stereotypically male domains. Men choose more often to enter a competitive setting compared to women, and tend to exert more effort and perform better in such environments. In research conducted with Jen Brown, we examine the choices of male and female students, within the context of a competitive higher educational environment.
'Despite having slightly better course grades on average, we find that female students tend to request lower-ranked universities than their male counterparts'
Different choices lead to disparate future opportunities
We study the choices of undergraduate students at an elite public university in France. At this university, students are required to spend their third year abroad, either studying at one of nearly 400 participating foreign universities or completing an internship. To participate in the exchange program, students submit a ranked list of six universities that they would like to attend. Students compete for the limited number of seats offered by each university. Accounting for students’ underlying academic ability, we find evidence that male and female students within the same academic program make different choices that may lead to disparate future opportunities and labour market outcomes. Despite having slightly better course grades on average, we find that female students tend to request lower-ranked universities than their male counterparts. The difference is particularly pronounced among high-achieving students. On average, female students request universities that are worse than their academic standing. Women may be asking for lower-ranked universities because they underestimate their chances of being admitted.
Gender differences in expectations
However, our analysis also suggests that male and female students have, on average, different expectations regarding the experiences they want to obtain from this study abroad programme. In particular, more male students believe that the academic reputation of the foreign university is very important to them. More female students view the year abroad as an opportunity to discover a foreign culture. This difference could result from a larger societal pressure on men to perform well on the labour market.
Education as a signalling device
Education is an important driver of employers’ perceptions of resume quality, and prestigious college education has been associated with labour market premia. Employers may use education as a signal of individuals’ true ability. Our results suggest that quality signals on graduates’ resumes may not be reliable. Some high ability students may appear weaker on the job market than their less-able classmates. Noisy signals may explain, in part, the persistent gender wage gap observed right after graduation.
