ABSTRACT
More recently, a growing body of research has explored racial/ethnic and gender inequities in higher education. The two dominant sociological traditions reviewed—status attainment and social reproduction—have originated from concerns regarding socioeconomic inequality. Combining insights across the different dimensions of inequality would amplify their contributions to understanding college student success. Whereas the status attainment tradition provides extensive descriptions of the contours of inequality, the social reproduction tradition illuminates the mechanisms that produce that inequality. The social reproduction tradition has been critiqued for providing a myopic view of the role of cultural (and social) capital by emphasizing reproduction and not considering the prospect of mobility. College major is a central factor in the discussion of gender inequalities in higher education. Sociological research on various dimensions of inequality, including sexual identity, immigrant generation, and disability, is largely absent in higher education.
