Reducing Gender Segregation in Higher Education: The Impact of Vocational School Curricula

• In Event: Beyond the Degree: Outcomes and Costs Associated With College

Abstract

Students often restrict their attention to careers dominated by their gender, choosing gender-typical study programs in higher education. This pattern contributes to perpetuating gender pay gaps in the labor market. We argue that this issue can be partly mitigated by exposing students to a broader range of career options through non-gender-typical vocational curricula in high school. To empirically assess this claim, we evaluated the impact of being exposed to such vocational curricula on enrollment in higher education. Our data include more than 2,000,000 students from 9 cohorts entering Chilean higher education institutions. We find that students who attended high schools offering at least one non-gender-typical vocational program are more likely to enroll in higher education programs beyond traditional gender roles

Author

• María Paola Sevilla, Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile