Sex Segregation in Fields of Doctorate Degrees in the United States, 1971-1998: A Methodological and Empirical Analysis Using Segregation Indices Describing Evenness

Su Li, Northwestern University

This paper studies doctoral degree recipients' gender distribution in all academic fields in America from 1971 to 1998, answers questions like, does the overall gender-based segregation mostly come from within or between areas; are American Doctoral programs getting integrated by gender or segregated; of all fields, which ones contribute more to the changing trend. The study uses various segregation indices. The decomposition of H shows the between areas segregation grew larger and exceeded the within areas segregation. D, SSD and A together indicate: 1)from 1970 to 1980, the segregation decreased; 2) from 1980 to 1990, some large fields as other Education and Clinical Psychology grew segregated and some segregated fields such as Mechanical Engineering grew larger; however, due to the offsetting effect caused by the coexistence of segregation and integration, the trend was sensitive to which index is used; 3)from 1990 until now, the gender segregation level decreased negligibly.