Gender Differences in Postcollege Earnings of STEM Graduates

• In Event: 66.079 - Roundtable Session 25
  In Roundtable Session: 66.079-8 - Inequality: Race/Ethnicity and Gender

Abstract

Many students pursue higher education to improve their positions in the labor market (Perna, 2005; Baum & Ma, 2007), but the return on college education is not the same for men and women. Since a significant portion of the gender wage gap is attributed to the gendered division of labor (Reskin & Bielby, 2005; Gerber & Cheung, 2008), the earnings of students who have pursued the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields appear particularly interesting due to the high level of segregation by sex in these fields. This study explores the determinants of annual salary of women and men with bachelor’s degrees in STEM to understand the roles of major and gender in the earnings of college-educated workers.

Author

• Gloria Lim, University of California - Los Angeles