Thinking about Parents: Gender and Field of Study

Educational choices are still highly segregated by gender in most countries around the world ( Altonji, Blom, and Meghir 2012; Blau and Kahn 2017 ) , with women persistently underrepresented in highly remunerated fields, such as science, technology, engineering, and mathematics ( STEM ) , and men underrepresented in areas such as the humanities, education, and health ( Delfino, forthcoming ) . Skills, comparative advantage, and self-confidence in different fields are important predictors of educational choices ( Breda and Napp 2019; Carlana 2019 ) . Notably, parents play a crucial role in shaping their children's confidence, beliefs in their own abilities, and behavior through explicit or implicit recommendations. They transmit cultural traits and investments and serve as role models ( Giustinelli 2016; Doepke and Zilibotti 2017; Dizon-Ross 2019; Attanasio, Boneva, and Rauh 2022 ) . This implies that if parents hold gender -stereotypical views, they may cause distortion of beliefs on the perceived ability of children, perpetuating gender segregation in the field of study ( Bordalo et al. 2019; Coffman 2014 ) .