本研究利用台灣1996年至2010年大學升學考試的考生原始資料，分析男女生對學科領域的選擇偏好及其決定因素。我們發現台灣近15年來，學科領域的性別區隔程度隨時間演進並沒有明顯的改變，男女生對學科領域的選擇方式，大多依循學科領域的性別屬性。利用Multinomial Logit模型的實證顯示，學科成績雖然是影響兩性學科領域選擇的重要因素，但家庭背景以及不可觀察到的選擇偏好影響因素(例如：文化或社會規範)仍扮演重要的角色。我們進一步將男女生選擇各學科領域機率的差異進行拆解，發現文化或社會規範因素可能長期持續的影響著男女生對學科領域的選擇行爲。

Gender differences in college major choice are well known and have been studied by researchers across many disciplines. This paper addresses the question of how college majors are chosen, focusing on the underlying gender gap. Using the College and University Joint Entrance Examination files, covering the years from1996 to 2010, which is a data set unique to Taiwan, female and male students’ major choices are analyzed by a multinomial logit regression. Our results demonstrat that abilities in mathematics, Chinese and English are the most important determinants in the choice for both genders. We also utilized the decomposition strategy to examine the scores of the College and University Joint Entrance Examination in order to explain the difference in the majors chosen by female and male students. However, our results indicate that the difference in test scores between genders accounted for only part of the observed gap. Instead, the difference in unobservable preferences is the main cause of today’s gender gaps in choice of academic majors.