The majors of transgender and gender diverse college students

Abstract

There is a documented wealth gap between cisgender and transgender and gender diverse (TGD) individuals. One potential contributing factor to the wealth gap is college major selection. Certain college majors (e.g. business and STEM majors) demand higher starting salaries and offer the opportunity for higher lifetime earnings. We hypothesized that TGD students may be more likely to select majors (e.g. arts and humanities) with lower starting salaries, which could impact their financial well-being. This project analyzed data from the 2017 and 2020 Study on Collegiate Financial Wellness (SCFW) (n = 1547). This study compared the percentage of TGD students who are in each major to the percentage of presumably cisgender students. The results of this exploratory study suggest support for the hypothesis. TGD college students are more likely to select art and humanities majors, and less likely to select business, science-related, and technology majors. These results should serve as a call for more research in this area and for more progress in developing inclusive college majors and careers for TGD students and professionals.