Digitalization and Inequality: The Impact on Adult Education Participation Across Social Classes and Genders

The digital transition is a major contemporary challenge that unevenly impacts the life chances of occupational classes and the well-being of individuals. The decline of the working class, driven by skill-based technological change, further provides additional arguments for examining the impact of digitalization on individuals’ chances from a class perspective. The intersections between social class and gender deserve attention in relation to adult education participation. This paper aims to account for both individual-level characteristics—occupational class and gender—and macro-level characteristics including digitalization, measured by the Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI), and inequality, measured by the Gini coefficient. Analyzing data from the European Social Survey, Round 10 (2021/2022), our results show that digital performance in a given country is positively associated with the probability of participation in adult education. Women in countries with higher levels of digital performance are more likely to participate in adult education. We found evidence for a positive interaction between DESI and lower-grade service class for women, whereas in the case of men, we found positive interaction terms between DESI and small business owners, skilled workers, and unskilled workers.