A four-year postsecondary degree offers opportunities for a higher income and upward economic mobility. However, postsecondary education—historically inaccessible to people of color and women—also plays a key role in reproducing and amplifying societal inequities by sorting students into specialized fields of study by race and gender. This in turn contributes to a segregated labor force.
A new report from the Georgetown Center on Poverty & Inequality examines the link between fields of study and labor market segregation using an original quantitative analysis. Among the key findings:
- Students enter postsecondary institutions already segregated across fields of study by gender and race. For example, about 10 percent of white students entering college intend to major in natural sciences or mathematics, compared to 6 percent of Black students. Some 6 percent of entering white students plan to major in engineering compared to 3 percent of Black students.
- Today’s postsecondary system does little to interrupt this initial segregation, and graduates remain segregated across fields of study by gender and race, including at public universities.
The report presents four principles and corresponding recommendations that postsecondary institutions and policymakers can use to reduce racial and gender segregation across fields of study, increase degree attainment, and ultimately, ameliorate labor market segregation.