We investigate how high school gender composition affects students’ participation in STEM at college. Using Danish administrative data, we exploit idiosyncratic within-school variation in gender composition. We find that having a larger proportion of female peers reduces women’s probability of enrolling in and graduating from STEM programs. Men’s STEM participation increases with more female peers present. In the long run, women exposed to more female peers are less likely to work in STEM occupations, earn less, and have more children. Our findings show that the school peer environment has lasting effects on occupational sorting, the gender wage gap, and fertility.

中文翻译：

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接触更多女性同龄人会扩大STEM参与中的性别差距

我们调查高中性别构成如何影响学生在大学中参加STEM。利用丹麦的行政数据，我们利用性别差异在学校内部的变异。我们发现，拥有较大比例的女性同龄人会降低女性入读STEM计划并从中毕业的可能性。随着越来越多的女性同龄人参加，男性的STEM参与度也增加了。从长远来看，与更多女性同龄人接触的妇女从事STEM工作的可能性较小，收入较少，并且生育的子女更多。我们的研究结果表明，学校同伴环境对职业分类，性别工资差距和生育率具有持久影响。