Gender Differences in Fields of Study: The Role of Comparative Advantage for Trajectory Choices in Upper Secondary Education

Abstract

Absolute ability/achievement does not explain gender differences in educational trajectories, but the role of comparative advantage (i.e., being better in one subject compared to another) has received much less attention. To study this, longitudinal data collected among 1,352 individuals (age 15-16) in upper secondary education in the Netherlands are used. Multinomial path analyses showed that compared to girls, boys are on average 15% more likely to enter the most male-typical trajectory and 16% less likely to enter the most female-typical trajectory. Although having a comparative advantage affects trajectory choices, it does not explain gender differences in trajectory choices in secondary education.

Intersecting Inequalities in Education and on the Labour Market: Gender and Migration Background in Comparative Perspective

“…However, in the quantitative empirical literature these two sources of inequality are typically studied separately from each other (see Schieckoff/Sprengholz 2021). Much of the research on gender gaps in education and on the labour market focuses on the non-migrant population only (e.g., Blossfeld/Rohwer 1997;Stadelmann-Steffen 2008;Van der Vleuten 2021), while studies of immigrants in Western labour markets -even when they do include immigrant women -do not always include nonmigrant women as reference group (e.g., Stichs 2008), or they present separate analyses for men and women (e.g., Adsera/Chiswick 2007;Kogan 2012;Van Tubergen, Maas and Flap 2004). Few quantitative studies have examined the interactions between gender and ethnic origin with regard to labour market attainment, and most of them have been conducted in countries outside Europe with substantially different histories of immigration, differently composed immigrant populations and different welfare state regulations (e.g., Israel: Raijman/Semyonov 1997; US: Antecol 2001, Cotter, Hermsen andVanneman 1999; but see Salikutluk, Giesecke and Kroh 2020 for a more recent study on Germany).…”