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Like Father, Like Daughter (Unless There Is a Son): Sibling Sex Composition and Women's STEM Major Choice in College

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  • Oguzoglu, Umut

    (University of Manitoba)

  • Ozbeklik, Serkan

    (Claremont McKenna College)

Abstract

We investigate the potential role of fathers in females' decision to choose a science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) major in college. The main innovation of our paper is to analyze how sibling sex composition affects the probability of being a STEM major in college for females whose fathers are in a STEM occupation. Using the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 (NLSY79), we find that, for females, having brother(s) significantly decreases the likelihood of choosing a STEM major in college when their fathers are also in a STEM occupation. The inclusion of variables pertaining to respondents' attitudes toward traditional gender roles, birth order, and the presence of an older brother as well as frequently used cognitive skill measures does not change the results. Thus, the observed effect appears to be driven by change in the college major preferences of females. We replicate the analysis using a more recent data set from the U.S. and data from Australia, and find similar results. Our findings suggest that fathers are much more likely to transmit occupation-specific tastes and preferences to their daughters in the absence of a son potentially, contributing to the persistence of the gender gap in STEM majors in college.

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  • Oguzoglu, Umut & Ozbeklik, Serkan, 2016. "Like Father, Like Daughter (Unless There Is a Son): Sibling Sex Composition and Women's STEM Major Choice in College," IZA Discussion Papers 10052, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp10052
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    Cited by:

    1. McFarland Amanda & Pearlman Sarah, 2020. "Knowledge Obsolescence and Women’s Occupational Sorting: New Evidence from Citation Data," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 20(1), pages 1-14, January.
    2. Julia Philipp, 2023. "Gendered university major choice: the role of intergenerational transmission," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 36(2), pages 1049-1097, April.
    3. Chise Diana & Fort Margherita & Monfardini Chiara, 2021. "On the Intergenerational Transmission of STEM Education among Graduate Students," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 21(1), pages 115-145, January.
    4. Bicakova, Alena & Jurajda, Štepán, 2016. "Field-of-Study Homogamy," IZA Discussion Papers 9844, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    5. Kelly Foley, 2019. "The gender gap in university enrolment: Do parents play a role beyond investing in skills?," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 52(2), pages 441-489, May.
    6. Gordon B. Dahl & Dan-Olof Rooth & Anders Stenberg, 2020. "Intergenerational and Sibling Spillovers in High School Majors," NBER Working Papers 27618, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Diana Chise & Margherita Fort & Chiara Monfardini, 2020. "Scientifico! like Dad: On the Intergenerational Transmission of STEM Education," FBK-IRVAPP Working Papers 2020-01, Research Institute for the Evaluation of Public Policies (IRVAPP), Bruno Kessler Foundation.
    8. Noemi Oggero & Francesco Devicienti & Mariacristina Rossi & Davide Vannoni, 2022. "You can’t be what you can’t see: The role of gender in the intergenerational transmission of entrepreneurship," Carlo Alberto Notebooks 675 JEL Classification: L, Collegio Carlo Alberto.
    9. Anne Ardila Brenøe, 2022. "Brothers increase women’s gender conformity," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 35(4), pages 1859-1896, October.
    10. Arpita Patnaik & Matthew J. Wiswall & Basit Zafar, 2020. "College Majors," NBER Working Papers 27645, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. Tao, Hung-Lin & Cheng, Hui-Pei, 2022. "Parental and sibling influence on study field choice: Gender-stereotypical or field preference transmission," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    12. Silvia Griselda, 2020. "Different Questions, Different Gender Gap: Can the Format of Questions Explain the Gender Gap in Mathematics?," 2020 Papers pgr710, Job Market Papers.
    13. Lundberg, Shelly, 2022. "Gender Economics: Dead-Ends and New Opportunities," IZA Discussion Papers 15217, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    14. Maria Knoth Humlum & Anne Brink Nandrup & Nina Smith, 2019. "Closing or reproducing the gender gap? Parental transmission, social norms and education choice," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 32(2), pages 455-500, April.
    15. Magdalena Smyk, 2017. "Gender beliefs and planned occupation: high school pupils and their parents," GRAPE Working Papers 3, GRAPE Group for Research in Applied Economics.
    16. Anne Ardila Brenøe, 2018. "Origins of gender norms: sibling gender composition and women's choice of occupation and partner," ECON - Working Papers 294, Department of Economics - University of Zurich.
    17. Cools, Angela & Patacchini, Eleonora, 2017. "Sibling Gender Composition and Women's Wages," IZA Discussion Papers 11001, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    18. Elizabeth Mishkin, 2021. "Gender and Sibling Dynamics in the Intergenerational Transmission of Entrepreneurship," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 67(10), pages 6116-6135, October.
    19. D. Chise & M. Fort & C. Monfardini, 2019. "Scientifico! like Dad: On the Intergenerational Transmission of STEM Education in Italy," Working Papers wp1138, Dipartimento Scienze Economiche, Universita' di Bologna.
    20. Magdalena Smyk, 2017. "Gender occupational segregation: the role of parents," GRAPE Working Papers 4, GRAPE Group for Research in Applied Economics.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    STEM; gender gap; college major; siblings sex composition; intergenerational transmission;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • I23 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Higher Education; Research Institutions

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