Abstract
The article examines how male and female students were allocated to different groups of Brazilian higher education courses in 2002 and 2016. Microdata from the 2014 Pesquisa Nacional por Amostra de Domicílios [National Household Sample Survey] and the 2002 and 2016 Censo do Ensino Superior [Higher Education Census] were used. The results indicate that the number of female students that complete high school is disproportionately higher, and that it increased in the more recent born cohort. On the other hand, there are significant differences showing that women are over-represented in fields of study with lower returns in the labor market. The gender segregation pattern of educational choices is stable over time. However, it was observed that this is not due to a static behavior of gender segregation in the fields of study, but to the compensation of undergraduate courses that decrease and increase segregation.
GENDER RELATIONS; HIGHER EDUCATION; SOCIAL STRATIFICATION