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We investigate associations between adherence to femininity and choice of college major using a sample of university women in the United States. Our results indicate that general conformity to feminine norms is related to postsecondary field of study. With background factors controlled, general conformity to feminine norms is associated negatively with women’s odds of choosing STEM and doctoral-track medicine majors, as well as arts and humanities majors, relative to other fields of study. Our multivariate results also indicate that level of conformity to specific feminine norms, including norms for being relationship-oriented, caring for children, and being domestic, is related to postsecondary field of study, especially for choosing a major in arts and humanities, business, and communication and journalism. Taken together, our findings suggest that cultural norms about femininity contribute to ongoing gender segregation of academic fields of study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prior research on the relationship between adolescent childbearing and later life outcomes is deficient in two respects. First, it has focused almost exclusively on socioeconomic outcomes, failing to consider the possible effect of a birth on social psychological outcomes. Second, it generally has not considered whether the relationship between adolescent childbearing and outcomes has changed across cohorts and over time. This study attempts to fill these two gaps by estimating and comparing the effects of non-marital childbearing on change in a social psychological variable, educational expectations, over the period between the sophomore year in high school and two years later, using longitudinal data for the sophomore cohorts of High School and Beyond, 1980, and the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988. Findings for both cohorts indicate that adolescent girls tend to reduce their educational expectations following a nonmarital pregnancy or birth. In addition, adolescent girls with low educational expectations are at greater risk of a nonmarital pregnancy or birth than adolescent girls with high educational expectations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]