Selection effects: men and women may go into economics for different reasons; for example (as a bit of a caricature); men who want to get obscenely rich study economics to get into business, and women who want to get obscenely rich try to marry into money, and money-grabiness is correlated with pro-free market views.
Another version of this idea that I was going to post: is that conservative women are more likely to become stay-at-home moms and thus liberal women will be overrepresented in all jobs.
That’s a much better example than mine and I’m annoyed I didn’t think of it first. If that’s true, than we should expect proportionally less conservative women in higher education, regardless of major (and the effect should remain once you control for intelligence and/or social class).
Another version of this idea that I was going to post: is that conservative women are more likely to become stay-at-home moms and thus liberal women will be overrepresented in all jobs.
That’s a much better example than mine and I’m annoyed I didn’t think of it first. If that’s true, than we should expect proportionally less conservative women in higher education, regardless of major (and the effect should remain once you control for intelligence and/or social class).
To the effect those aren’t correlated with being conservative.