The increased participation of women in higher education in India since 1947 has not received the scholarly attention it deserves. Since independence, there have been shifts–dispersal and clustering of women students in various disciplines in higher education. There is a need to understand the processes of decision making regarding schooling, subject choice and access (physical and social) to higher education. The article examines the factors affecting the subject choices of women in higher education and how diverse contexts of gender consideration influence choices made at the post-secondary and undergraduate levels. This exploratory study of women students at a university in Delhi showed that the family and the school were the key institutions that shaped their choice of subjects. In the family, the father played a prominent role in deciding the subject choice, and gender mediated the entire decision-making process. At the undergraduate level, women’s subject choice was compromised by concerns related to their gender. Priority was given to the institution, to its location and to the availability of an attached hostel, rather than to the subject or discipline.

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