Gender Patterns in Educational and Occupational Trajectories: Longitudinal Results

Based on findings from a longitudinal research, “EPITeen24: Reproducing or going against social destiny?”, that analyzed a cohort of people born in 1990, assessed at the ages of 13, 17, 21 and 24, we develop a paper about youngsters gender patterns’, educational trajectories and the first years at the labor market.

Results from several waves show that women stand out in upward educational mobility and seem to present focused oriented practices to reach higher educational and social position. Young women are more likely to have lower rates of school failures and higher levels of schooling. However, it´s early to tell whether this upward educational mobility is reflected in a social upward mobility, as girls already seem to demonstrate more difficulties entering the labor market. They have both higher part-time employment and unemployment rates than young men. Young men reveal higher social capital that seems to help them in the labor market. It is therefore visible a strong female agency (2/3 of youngsters with Upward Educational Mobility are women), but at the same time strong gender inequalities entering the labor market, with women presenting more precarious and unstable situations and men occupying more places in positions of authority, prestige and status.

Considering a theoretical framework that combines social class and educational mobility (Roberts, 2009), the role of the Welfare State and the educational system (Abrantes & Abrantes, 2014), gender inequalities and masculinities and femininities (Torres et al, 2014; Sikora e Pokropek, 2011; McDowell, 2009; Connell, 2009; Holland, 2009; Torres, 2006) we’ll try to answer the following questions: Who is winning and where? Who is losing and where?