Education and the sex of those around you

Two recent papers:

Persistent Effects of Teacher-Student Gender Matches:

We exploit data from middle schools in Seoul, South Korea, where students and teachers are randomly assigned to classrooms, and find that female students taught by a female versus a male teacher score higher on standardized tests compared to male students even five years later. We also find that having a female math teacher in 7th grade increases the likelihood that female students take higher-level math courses, aspire to a STEM degree, and attend a STEM-focused high school. These effects are driven by changes in students' attitudes and choices.

The Effect of Peer Gender on Major Choice :

This paper investigates how the peer gender composition in university affects students' major choices and labor market outcomes. Women who are randomly assigned to more female peers become less likely to choose male-dominated majors, they end up in jobs where they work fewer hours and their wage grows at a slower rate. Men become more likely to choose male-dominated majors after having had more female peers, although their labor market outcomes are not affected. Our results suggest that the increasing female university enrollment over recent decades has paradoxically contributed to the occupational segregation among university graduates that persists in today’s labor market.