The influence of gender composition in a field of study on students' drop‐out of higher education

Abstract

Combining Tinto's classical model of student drop‐out with Kanter's assessment of minorities, this article examines the influence of gender composition in a field of study on drop‐out from higher education. Our empirical analysis is based on a sample of students who left German higher education in 2014. Our results confirm previous findings that women in gender‐atypical subjects show a higher drop‐out risk than their male fellow students. We assess several mechanisms which could contribute to explain this effect. Contrary to our expectations, social integration, in the sense of contact with lecturers, seems to be a protective factor for women and men in gender‐atypical subjects. For women in gender‐atypical fields of study, contact with peers is an additional protective factor against drop‐out. The most important mechanism to explain higher education drop‐out is women's more negative self‐assessment of their suitability for male‐dominated subjects.

Academic Literacy and Student Diversity: Evaluating a Curriculum-Integrated Inclusive Practice Intervention in the United Kingdom

“…As a result, "student experience" has become a central concept in institutional planning. According to a study conducted in 2019 on the experience of freshmen in the United Kingdom, "lack of academic progress" is a key reason why a substantial number of undergraduate students drop out of their degree programs [13].…”

Student attrition in gender atypical fields of study. A matter of lacking social integration or pressure from significant others?

“…Research on the impact of social integration on the attrition of students in gender atypical fields of studies is still scarce. One previous study indicates that social integration cannot explain the higher non-completion rate of students in gender atypical majors (Meyer et al, 2019). However, this study measures social integration only retrospectively and hence the measurement might be biased.…”

“…Social integration and academic integration are often closely interrelated, but they exert an independent influence on drop out decisions (Tinto, 1975). Many empirical studies support Tinto's arguments and show that social and academic integration predict students' persistence in higher education (e.g., Chen, 2012;Meyer et al, 2019). Following Kanter's theory of Tokenism (1977b), I argue that male and female students in gender atypical majors are more likely to experience low social integration with fellow students and hence, have a higher non-completion risk than students in gender typical programs.…”

“…Overall, men and women rarely choose a gender atypical field of study. Furthermore, some empirical studies suggests that these students show a higher non-completion risk than students in gender typical majors (Bloom, 2013;Meyer et al, 2019). However, results of previous studies are not consistent.…”

“…I only present results of studies that either directly measure the effect of sex ratio in a major on persistence, or conduct within-gender comparisons. Some studies found that a low proportion of female students is associated with women experiencing thoughts of quitting and non-completion (Spangler et al, 1978;Meyer et al, 2019). In contrast, other studies demonstrated that women in male dominated majors are more likely to persist than female students in more gender-balanced majors (Rogers et al, 1991), or found no effect (Riegle-Crumb et al, 2016;Sax, 1996).…”