Sex Differences in Economists' Fields of Specialization

Occupational segregation is examined within a narrowly defined occupation (economics) by analyzing several determinants of women economists' decisions to enter various fields of specialization. A woman's decision to enter a field with a particular degree of F intensity was viewed as the culmination of a series of earlier decisions, & path analysis was used to model this decision-making process. Variables measuring both career aspirations & career opportunities were utilized in the model. The model was tested on data collected by the American Economic Assoc Committee on the Status of Women in the Economics Profession (CSWEP) in the 1974-75 Survey of Economists, which included completed questionnaires of 949 women (56% response) & 782 men (47% response) engaged as professional economists. The most important determinant of the degree of relative F intensity of field choice was whether a woman economist majored in economics in undergraduate Coll. Women who did not major in economics as undergraduates were more likely to choose relatively F-intensive fields for specialization in PhD study or subsequent applications. Women who majored in economics as undergraduates were likely to have made an early (pre-Coll) decision to be an economist & to have taken more years of high school math than the average student. Although later date of birth indirectly is negatively associated with choice of a F-intensive specialty, it was not found to be directly so as expected. Younger women still are specializing disproportionately in F-intensive fields. The amount of math in Coll was expected to be negatively related to a choice by women of F-intensive fields, but was not found to be a significant factor after the amount of high school math was held constant. The model, though designed to predict women's field choice, was also tested on a sample of M economists matched, for school & year of degree, to the F sample. For men, the decision to choose a relatively F intensive specialty was related to the quality of BA school attended & to the desire to study economics primarily to help people. While in the F regressions, having more math in high school was likely to lead to specialization in relatively less F-intensive fields, the opposite was the case in the M regressions. 2 Figures, 3 Tables. Modified AA.