‘It’s just what I like’: explaining persistent patterns of gender stratification in the life choices of college students

College students often use the rhetoric of individualism to explain their choice of major. Ethnographic interviews of male and female students reveal that students’ choices are gendered. Men’s decisions focus more on future earning potential and less on personal interest. Most women believe they can choose their major without concern for future income‐earning potential, because they plan to assume a traditional, feminine role of a non‐working wife and mother with a gainfully employed spouse.