Gender, education expansion and intergenerational educational mobility around the world
1Department of Sociology, Lancaster University, Lancaster, UK. yang.hu@lancaster.ac.uk.
Nature Human Behaviour
|March 8, 2023
Summary
Social mobility is influenced by parents' education. As education expands globally, mother-child educational ties strengthen while father-child ties weaken, highlighting gender
Area of Science:
- Sociology
- Demography
- Education Studies
Background:
- Intergenerational social mobility is crucial for societal openness and stratification.
- Most research on social mobility has focused on father-child relationships in developed nations.
- The role of mothers in intergenerational mobility, especially globally, remains under-explored.
Purpose of the Study:
- To examine global patterns of intergenerational educational mobility.
- To investigate how education expansion influences these patterns.
- To analyze the impact of parental educational pairing on mobility.
Main Methods:
- Utilized a large dataset of 1.79 million individuals born between 1956-1990.
- Included data from 106 diverse societies worldwide.
- Analyzed associations between parents' and children's educational attainment.
Main Results:
- Education expansion weakens father-child educational associations but strengthens mother-child associations.
- Hypogamous parental education (mother more educated) strengthens mother-child ties and weakens father-child ties.
- Hypergamous parental education (father more educated) weakens mother-daughter associations.
Conclusions:
- Global evidence indicates that education expansion impacts intergenerational mobility differently based on gender.
- Parental educational pairing significantly shapes the strength of mother-child and father-child educational associations.
- A gender-sensitive approach is essential for understanding the effects of education expansion on intergenerational mobility.
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