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The reversal of gender inequality in education, union formation and fertility in Europe

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  • Jan Van Bavel

Abstract

While men have always received more education than women in the past, thisgender imbalance in education has recently turned around. For the first time inEuropean history, there are now more highly educated women than men reachingthe reproductive ages and looking for a partner. I expect that this will haveprofound consequences for the demography of reproduction because matingpatterns have always implied that men are the majority in higher education. Thesetraditional practices are no longer compatible with the new gender distribution ineducation. The objective of this paper is to formulate hypotheses about theconsequences for reproductive behaviour in Europe. I expect the following causalchain between the reversal of the gender imbalance in education (RGIE) andfertility: RGIE creates a new, education-specific mating squeeze that affects theprocess and expected pattern of assortative mating, which in turns affects thetiming, probability and stability of union formation, which eventually is expectedto have implications for fertility. Each of the links in this chain are discussed indetail.

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  • Jan Van Bavel, 2012. "The reversal of gender inequality in education, union formation and fertility in Europe," Vienna Yearbook of Population Research, Vienna Institute of Demography (VID) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna, vol. 10(1), pages 127-154.
    • Handle: RePEc:vid:yearbk:v:10:y:2012:i:1:p:127-154
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