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Gender Differences in the Choice of Major: The Importance of Female Role Models
Catherine Porter and Danila Serra
American Economic Journal: Applied Economics. Jul 2020, Vol. 12, No. 3: Pages 226-254

Gender Differences in the Choice of Major: The Importance of Female Role Models†

Catherine Porter1 and Danila Serra2

1Lancaster University Management School, Lancaster LA14YX, UK (email: )

2Department of Economics, Texas A&M University, 3094 Allen Building, College Station, TX 77843 (email: )

Abstract

We conducted a field experiment aimed at increasing the percentage of women majoring in economics. We exposed students enrolled in introductory classes to successful and charismatic women who majored in economics at the same university. The intervention significantly impacted female students’ enrollment in further economics classes, increasing their likelihood to major in economics by 8 percentage points. This is a large effect, given that only 9 percent of women were majoring in economics at baseline. Since the impacted women were previously planning to major in lower-earning fields, our low-cost intervention may have a positive effect on their future incomes. (JEL A22, C93, I23, I26, J16)