Educational systems and gender segregation in education

A threecountry comparison of Germany, Norway and Canada

authored by: Christian Imdorf, Kristinn Hegna, Verena Eberhard, Pierre Doray
Abstract: How do institutional settings and their embedded policy principles affect gender-typed enrolment in educational programmes? Based on gender-sensitive theories on career choice, we hypothesised that gender segregation in education is higher with a wider range of offers of vocational programmes. By analysing youth survey and panel data, we tested this assumption for Germany, Norway and Canada, three countries whose educational systems represent a different mix of academic, vocational and universalistic education principles. We found that vocational programmes are considerably more gender-segregated than are academic (e.g. university) programmes. Men, more so than women, can avoid gender-typed programmes by passing on to a university education. This in turn means that as long as their secondary school achievement does not allow for a higher education career, they have a higher likelihood of being allocated to male-typed programmes in the vocational education and training (VET) system. In addition, social background and the age at which students have to choose educational offers impact on the transition to gendered educational programmes. Overall, gender segregation in education is highest in Germany and the lowest in Canada. We interpret the differences between these countries with respect to the constellations of educational principles and policies in the respective countries.
External Organisation(s): University of Bern
University of Oslo
Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB)
Universite du Quebec a Montreal (UQAM)
Type: Review article
Journal: Comparative Social Research
Volume: 31
Pages: 83-122
No. of pages: 40
ISSN: 0195-6310
Publication date: 01.01.2015
Publication status: Published
Peer reviewed: Yes
ASJC Scopus subject areas: Sociology and Political Science
Sustainable Development Goals: SDG 5 - Gender Equality
Electronic version(s): https://doi.org/10.1108/S0195-631020150000031004 (Access: Unknown)