The Effect of Title IX on Gender Disparity in Graduate Education

Abstract

AbstractThis paper examines whether Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, which banned sex discrimination in admissions, was successful in reducing gender disparity in graduate education. Using school‐level survey data and a national survey of college degree‐holders, I find that female enrollment at graduate schools increased by an average of 18.7 percent following Title IX's passage. This phenomenon was mainly driven by schools that had greater incentive to comply with the new law. I also find evidence that Title IX reduced gender disparities across degree fields; the female‐male gap in traditionally male fields closed by 3.2 to 8.5 percentage points after Title IX. These results are robust to alternative explanations, such as the end of the Vietnam War draft, law changes related to fertility, and other events that occurred between the late 1960s and early 1970s that may also have affected female educational decisions.