Gender and Major Selection: Accounting Versus Finance

Male students tend to major in finance and female students tend to major in accounting. In 2006-07, about two-thirds of the U.S. bachelor\u27s degrees awarded in finance were awarded to males while about two-thirds of the U.S. bachelor\u27s degrees awarded in accounting were awarded to females. Prima facie, this seems odd. Both majors are numbers-based subjects with similar salary and career prospects. Indeed, they are, arguably, closely related fields. To explore this gender-divergence issue, we will present evidence of a longitudinal study of over 350 students enrolled in multiple sections of the junior-level core finance class, which is taken by all business majors. For each student, we analyze the effect of her or his learning style and personality type – along with background information such as grades, major, gender, and race – on his or her ultimate choice of major. Gender and teaching styles of the course instructors are also analyzed