College Major Selection, Social Class, and the Gender Pay Gap in the United States

Although researchers have made plausible arguments about the contributions of several factors, occupational segregation and the “motherhood penalty” are widely considered to be two of the most important causes of the gender pay gap in the United States today. In this article we discuss some of the most important findings in the gender pay gap research in the U.S. We then summarize an exploratory study we conducted in spring 2024 into one particular stage in the process of occupational segregation: the choice of college major. We hypothesized that (a) female students would be overrepresented in lower-paying majors and (b) working-class females, while still overrepresented in these majors, would be more likely to choose higher-paying majors, given their backgrounds and the greater salience of economic security for them compared with their non-working-class female peers. Using enrollment data from a university in the Mid-Atlantic region of the U.S., our first hypothesis was supported: females were overrepresented, to a significant degree, in majors with the lowest starting salaries. Our second hypothesis was not supported: the distribution of working-class females in lower-paying majors was virtually identical to that of non-working-class females. We discuss these results as well as survey responses from a convenience sample of 38 students at that university, responses which further illuminate our quantitative findings. We plan to develop this study into a full empirical investigation in fall 2024.