Equal Access, Persistent Divides: Gender Segregation in Italian Higher Education across Three Decades (1995–2022)

Adopting an “equal but different” perspective, this study investigates long-term changes in gendered patterns of university enrolment and field-of-study choice in Italy, focusing on the care-technical divide among cohorts of upper secondary school graduates from 1995 to 2022. Leveraging a unique longitudinal harmonization of survey data from the National Institute of Statistics with administrative educational databases, the analysis accounts for gender differences in prior secondary school track choice and academic performance. Results show that the female advantage in Higher Education (HE) participation largely disappears once differences in prior schooling are considered, suggesting that the gender reversal in enrolments reflects gendered educational pathways rather than a net advantage for women. However, a modest and persistent female advantage emerges in the second half of the 2000s, after the incorporation of traditionally feminized fields such as teaching and nursing into HE. Most importantly, gender disparities in field-of-study choice, particularly along the care-technical divide, have remained strikingly stable across cohorts, despite profound changes in overall participation levels. These findings highlight the resilience of horizontal gender segregation in HE and call into question the extent to which the expansion of women’s access to university has translated into more gender-equal educational outcomes.