The Relationship between Educational Pathways and Occupational Outcomes at the Intersection of Gender and Social Origin

Abstract

In this article, we are interested in the differences in the educational pathways and subsequent labour market outcomes by social origin and gender. We apply sequence analyses to model the educational trajectories and conduct regression analyses to determine how the individual’s own social status and the salary at labour market entry differs. First, our results show that educational pathways vary by parental status and gender when controlling for reading and mathematics/science skills. Men and pupils with a lower socioeconomic background are overrepresented in vocational education, whereas women and pupils with a more privileged socioeconomic background more often pursue general and academic tracks. Second, these different trajectories lead to unequal occupational status and income. Besides these indirect effects, significant direct effects of parental status and gender on the individual’s own occupational status and salary can be found. Together, these findings provide a broad overview of the emergence of inequalities by gender and social origin over the early life course, ranging from differences in skills learned in school to labour market outcomes.

Types of Education, Achievement and Labour Market Integration over the Life Course

“…Furthermore, the contributions on this issue show that there is interplay between types of education and ascribed characteristics, such as gender, social origin or migration background. Occupational outcomes tied to certain types of education differ for men and women, people with and without a migration background (Naseem, 2019;Zimmermann & Seiler, 2019) as well as by the national context (Barroso-Hurtado & Chan, 2019;Korber, 2019). In a similar vein, educational attainment in adulthood and the concomitant labour market outcomes are related to individuals' social background and occupational status (Bratsberg et al, 2019;Luchinskaya & Dickinson, 2019).…”

“…As recent research has shown, the distinction between broad types of education masks the large differences within types (Forster & Bol, 2017;Grønning et al, 2018). There is some early evidence that such differences go along with unequal labour market outcomes between social groups (Grønning, Kriesi, & Sacchi, 2019;Zimmermann & Seiler, 2019). Further research is needed on the measurement and conceptualization of such differences, on their possible effects on educational and labour market outcomes as well as on the intersectionality of educational characteristics and social group membership, such as social origin, gender or ethnicity.…”

Sozialkapital intersektional

“…Einkommensunterschiede sind vor allem in der Intersektion Frau mit niedriger sozioökonomischer Herkunft signifikant. Die Reproduktion des Herkunftseffekts ist damit bei Frauen grösser als bei Männern, welchen es eher gelingt, in eine höhere Salärstufe aufzusteigen (Zimmermann & Seiler, 2019).…”

Normalität und Subjektivierung

“…Differenz-und Ungleichheitsverhältnisse wie Rassismus, Sexismus oder Ableismus strukturieren die Übergänge ins Erwachsenenalter in der Schweiz (vgl. Haeberlin/ Imdorf/Kronig 2004;Imdorf 2008;Seibert/Hupka-Brunner/Imdorf 2009;Imdorf 2010;Sacchi et al 2011;Imdorf 2014;Zimmermann/Seiler 2019). Es gibt dabei auch Hinweise, dass im Kontext von Jugendhilfeangeboten ebenfalls Differenzen hervorgebracht werden, wenn bspw.…”