Class-based inequality and higher education achievement in Europe: the role of gender and class
International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy
ISSN: 0144-333X
Article publication date: 28 May 2024
Issue publication date: 26 September 2024
Abstract
Purpose
Against the recent reversal of the gender gap in higher education that has been observed in many countries, this paper aims to explore why there are better chances for lower social class women to access higher education than for higher social class women in a relative comparison with the same groups of men. Based on the occupational approach and the Breen–Goldthorpe model, we demonstrate those country conditions under which stratification in individual chances to obtain higher education is more severe.
Design/methodology/approach
We use contextual characteristics which capture gender-based and occupational differentiation, including female labour force participation, the share of females in the service sector, and the share of males in upper-secondary vocational education. By using multilevel modelling techniques and data provided by the European Social Survey (2002–2018) for 33 countries, we have made a cross-country analysis of how the relationship between gender and class, as well as the achievement of higher education, is moderated by these features.
Findings
Our results show that a higher share of males in upper secondary vocational education in a given country is negatively associated with the likelihood of obtaining higher education, whereas a high share of females employed in services in a given country has a positive association with this likelihood. We have also found cross-level interactions between a higher share of employed females and women in the service sector, on the one hand, and those of working-class origin, on the other, that are positively associated with higher education achievement. In higher education achievement, the growing importance of horizontal differentiation based on occupation and gender has accompanied the declining power of vertical inequality based on social class.
Originality/value
This study combines gender and class in an analysis of patterns of inequalities of educational opportunity in different societies undergoing a post-industrialist shift.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
We thank the European Social Survey (ESS) for making the research data available. We would like to thank the three anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments on an earlier version of this article. On Natalia's side, this article was prepared within the framework of the HSE University Basic Research Program. On Petya's side, this article was prepared within the project “Dynamics of inequalities in participation in higher and adult education: A comparative social justice perspective” the National Science Program VIHREN funded by the Bulgarian National Science Fund, contract number KΠ-06-ДB-2/16.12.2019.
Citation
Karmaeva, N. and Ilieva-Trichkova, P. (2024), "Class-based inequality and higher education achievement in Europe: the role of gender and class", International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, Vol. 44 No. 11/12, pp. 974-990. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJSSP-02-2024-0074
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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