Report
Teaser, summary, work performed and final results
Periodic Reporting for period 1 - GENSEG (Understanding the impact of parental occupation on gender differences in field of study choice in Germany)
Teaser
In many countries women have been increasing their participation in higher education, but fields of study and occupation continue to be segregated by gender. Men dominate the technical fields, whereas women tend to engage in areas that have a social and caring dimension...
Summary
In many countries women have been increasing their participation in higher education, but fields of study and occupation continue to be segregated by gender. Men dominate the technical fields, whereas women tend to engage in areas that have a social and caring dimension. Gender segregation in higher education has important consequences for the labour market. Not only does such segregation generate labour market disparities by gender, but it also has a considerable influence on the gender gap in salaries.
Although gender differences in educational and occupational choices are shaped by multifarious influences, the role of parents might be particularly worth attention because parents are the primary and one of the most influential socialising agents in childhood and adolescence. One possible source of students’ knowledge about and interest in a particular field of study and career early on stems from parental education and occupations. The impact of parents’ occupational fields and its gender typicality, however, has received less attention. In the first sub-project, we analyse data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) to examine whether parental occupations have a direct effect on students’ occupational aspirations among the recent cohorts of German youth.
Another question that receives less attention is how single-sex schools as a feature of educational systems might affect longer-term gender differences in field of study choices. The potential benefits of single-sex schooling are not easy to disentangle from other school effects, and Australia is a case in point here, because most of its sex-segregated secondary education is not provided by the government but by Catholic or independent schools. These schools charge tuition fees and are typically inaccessible to families with moderate material resources. Therefore, it is not clear to what extent the previously reported advantages in the uptake of specific fields of study are attributable to single-sex learning environments, teacher quality or student admission policies that favour advantageous socioeconomic background and prior academic achievement.
To contribute an insight about longer-term effects, in the second sub-project we explore how single-sex secondary education facilitates the pursuit of specific science majors at university. We use data from the 2003 cohort of the Longitudinal Survey of Australian Youth (LSAY). Given that men and women dominate physical sciences and life sciences respectively, we ask whether single-sex secondary schooling reduces gender differences in the pursuit of physical sciences or life sciences at university.
Prior field experiments have shown that certain information intervention was successful in promoting interest, performance and enrolment in science. Nevertheless, the relevance of information intervention for reducing gender inequalities in field of study choices has not yet been investigated in other welfare states than Italy. Therefore, in the third sub-project, we use primary data of high school students from Berlin to examine whether providing students with information on wages, career prospects and unemployment risks affects their field of study choices at university. We aim to find out whether such information interventions can be used to narrow the gender gap in field of study choices.
Work performed
Sub-project 1: Gender occupational aspirations of German youth: Role of parental occupations and gender division of labour
Using secondary data of 2235 adolescents from SOEP and multiple regression with Heckman selection correction, we find that sons of mothers who spent more time on childcare and of fathers who were employed in gender-typical jobs have a higher chance of aspiring to a gender-typical occupation. The latter relationship is not significant for boys who did not continuously live with their fathers and mothers since birth. Parental socialisation influences are mostly not significantly associated with the gender typicality of girls’ occupational aspirations.
The previous results of this sub-project have been presented in three conferences, three workshops and the monitoring meeting for the MSCA-IF projects.
Sub-project 2: Do single-sex schools help Australian students major in physical and life sciences at university?
Drawing on 3174 students from the 2003 cohort of LSAY and using multinomial logistic regressions, we find that girls who graduated from single-sex schools did not major in physical sciences at university at rates higher than their peers from coeducational schools. Likewise, there are no differences in the take up of life science majors, irrespective of gender or type of school. By contrast, fewer boys, who graduated from single-sex schools, went on to study physical sciences at university.
The previous results of this sub-project have been presented in an interdisciplinary workshop on social and educational inequalities and the monitoring meeting for the MSCA-IF projects.
Sub-project 3: How does informing students about wages, career prospects and unemployment risks bridge the gender gap in field of study choices?
We analyse data from the “Berliner-Studienberechtigten-Panel†(Best Up) which conducted an information experiment among high school students in Berlin. Drawing on 602 students from the primary data and using multiple regression, our results show that girls who received the information on wages, career prospects and unemployment risks were more likely than those who did not to enrol in university disciplines with higher-earning prospects.
The three papers based on these sub-projects are expected to be published in social science or educational journals in the coming years. These publications will be open access and deposited at OpenAIRE. We will disseminate our results and publications to the general public once each of our papers is accepted and available online.
Final results
First, the insights gained from the project are helpful in making substantial suggestions to parents about their roles in promoting gender equalities in educational and occupational choices. The project demonstrates that the gender typicality of boys’ occupational aspirations is affected by parental socialisation and family practices. We suggest that parents should be aware of their own bias towards their expectations of what girls and boys are capable of. Such gendered expectations may not only reinforce the widely shared gender stereotypes that males and females are different and are suitable for certain tasks, fields of study and occupations, but they may also influence children\'s self-perceptions, aspirations and decisions to pursue specific fields of study and occupation. This phenomenon is not only a waste of individual talents and potential but may also be a loss for society as the economy has a huge demand for skilled workers in certain fields.
Second, the project shows that providing girls with the information on wages, career prospects and unemployment risks can be a means to bridge the gender gap in field of study choices. We should strengthen career education by providing accurate information on occupations for primary and high school students in order to counteract the widely shared but inappropriate gender stereotypes. Girls and boys always have wrong perceptions of occupations available to them. Such inaccurate perceptions affect their aspirations for and choices of educational and occupational fields.