Volume 35 - Article 31 | Pages 929–960 
Gendered transitions to adulthood by college field of study in the United States
Date received: | 29 Jan 2016 |
Date published: | 28 Sep 2016 |
Word count: | 6217 |
Keywords: | field of study, gender, professional fields, STEM fields, transition to adulthood |
DOI: | 10.4054/DemRes.2016.35.31 |
Additional files: | readme.35-31 (text file, 93 Byte) |
demographic-research.35-31 (zip file, 6 MB) | |
Abstract
Background: Field of study may influence the timing of transitions to the labor market, marriage, and parenthood among college graduates. Research to date has yet to study how field of study is associated with the interweaving of these transitions in the USA.
Objective: The current study examines gendered influences of college field of study on transitions to a series of adult roles, including full-time work, marriage, and parenthood.
Methods: We use Cox proportional hazards models and multinomial logistic regression to examine gendered associations between field of study and the three transitions among college graduates of the NLSY97 (National Longitudinal Survey of Youth) cohort.
Results: Men majoring in STEM achieve early transitions to full-time work, marriage, and parenthood; women majoring in STEM show no significant advantage in finding full-time work and delayed marriage and childbearing; women in business have earlier transitions to full-time work and marriage than women in other fields, demonstrating an advantage similar to that of men in STEM.
Conclusions: The contrast between men and women in STEM shows that transition to adulthood remains gendered; the contrast between women in STEM and women in business illustrates that a prestigious career may not necessarily delay family formation.
Contribution: The paper shows how stratification by field of study creates gendered demographic outcomes for college graduates. It also demonstrates that women’s decisions regarding marriage and parenthood do not uniformly respond to the economic prospect of their work.
Author's Affiliation
Siqi Han - Columbia University, United States of America
Dmitry Tumin - Ohio State University, United States of America
Zhenchao Qian - Brown University, United States of America
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