Desegregation stalled - The changing gender composition of college majors, 1971-2002

Gender segregation in baccalaureate degree fields declined rapidly in the first half of the period from 1971 to 2002; at the same time, women's representation among baccalaureate degree recipients increased most rapidly relative to mens. The desegregation of the early period resulted mainly from women's increased entry into business- related fields and declining proportions of women majoring in traditional fields such as education and English. Men did not contribute to integration by moving towardfields numerically dominated by women. Fixed-effects regression models suggest that feminization of fields discourages later cohorts of men from entering them, as predicted by the devaluation perspective. The stalling of desegregation camefrom a combination of men's disinclination to enter fields that are "too" filled with women, and the slowdown in women making less traditional choices.