Gender Differences in the Choice of Major: The Importance of Female Role Models
通过向经济学入门课程的学生展示成功的女性榜样，该实地实验使女性学生主修经济学的比例提高了8个百分点，对缩小性别差距和提升未来收入有积极作用。
We conducted a field experiment aimed at increasing the percentage of women majoring in economics. We exposed students enrolled in introductory classes to successful and charismatic women who majored in economics at the same university. The intervention significantly impacted female students’ enrollment in further economics classes, increasing their likelihood to major in economics by 8 percentage points. This is a large effect, given that only 9 percent of women were majoring in economics at baseline. Since the impacted women were previously planning to major in lower-earning fields, our low-cost intervention may have a positive effect on their future incomes.