GENDER DISPARITIES AND SEGREGATION IN HIGHER EDUCATION IN ROMANIA: A SECONDARY DATA ANALYSIS OF ENROLLMENT PATTERNS

Abstract

Gender disparities and segregation in the context of higher education manifest in unequal patterns of enrollment across different academic fields, being women more concentrated in areas such as education, health and social sciences and, on the other hand, the men in engineering, technology as well as other STEM-related disciplines. The main objective of this study is to examine patterns of gender disparity and segregation across disciplines while providing an updated empirical overview of the Romanian context by analyzing statistical reports and presenting gender-disaggregated enrollment data across different fields of study in higher education from the academic years 2018–2019 to 2022–2023. The results reveal a consistent, stable and persistent pattern of gender segregation across the different fields of study in Romanian higher education and highlight the continued gendered field selection in this context, which demonstrates a persistent horizontal segregation within the system.