IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/zbw/wzbpre/p2023002.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Lost female talent: Gender differences in college aspirations and expectations in Germany

Author

Listed:
  • Erdmann, Melinda
  • Helbig, Marcel
  • Jacob, Marita

Abstract

Our study focuses on the gender gap in college aspirations and enrolment among high school students in Germany. We build on socialisation theory, rational choice theory, and formal restrictions to college access to explain gender differences in idealistic college aspirations, realistic college expectations, and the disparities between the two. Specifically, we examine the prevalence of 'pessimistic' college expectations, where college aspirations are higher than expectations, which we expect to be more likely among young women than young men. By analysing survey data from 1,766 upper secondary students in Germany, we find that women are equally interested in pursuing higher education as their male counterparts. They even express higher aspirations for college enrolment. However, women are more pessimistic than men about realising their aspirations. While factors such as the subjective probability of success and perceived costs impact both genders, young women are also affected by formal restrictions limiting entry to their preferred fields of study.

Suggested Citation

  • Erdmann, Melinda & Helbig, Marcel & Jacob, Marita, 2023. "Lost female talent: Gender differences in college aspirations and expectations in Germany," Discussion Papers, Presidential Department P 2023-002, WZB Berlin Social Science Center.
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:wzbpre:p2023002
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/274071/1/1855316315.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sylvia Korupp & Harry Ganzeboom & Tanja Van Der Lippe, 2002. "Do Mothers Matter? A Comparison of Models of the Influence of Mothers' and Fathers' Educational and Occupational Status on Children's Educational Attainment," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 36(1), pages 17-42, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. José Manuel Cordero Ferrera & Manuel Muñiz Pérez & Rosa Simancas Rodríguez, 2015. "The influence of socioeconomic factors on cognitive and non-cognitive educational outcomes," Investigaciones de Economía de la Educación volume 10, in: Marta Rahona López & Jennifer Graves (ed.), Investigaciones de Economía de la Educación 10, edition 1, volume 10, chapter 21, pages 413-438, Asociación de Economía de la Educación.
    2. Scodellaro, Claire & Khlat, Myriam & Jusot, Florence, 2012. "Intergenerational financial transfers and health in a national sample from France," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 75(7), pages 1296-1302.
    3. Miaari, Sami H. & Khattab, Nabil & Kraus, Vered & Yonay, Yuval P., 2021. "Ethnic Capital and Class Reproduction: Comparing the Impact of Socio-Economic Status on Children's Educational Attainment across Ethno-Religious Groups in Israel," IZA Discussion Papers 14053, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    4. Giambona, Francesca & Porcu, Mariano, 2018. "School size and students' achievement. Empirical evidences from PISA survey data," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 66-77.
    5. Joan Miquel Verd & Oriol Barranco & Mireia Bolíbar, 2019. "Youth unemployment and employment trajectories in Spain during the Great Recession: what are the determinants?," Journal for Labour Market Research, Springer;Institute for Employment Research/ Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), vol. 53(1), pages 1-20, December.
    6. Marika Jalovaara & Gunnar Andersson, 2018. "Disparities in Children’s Family Experiences by Mother’s Socioeconomic Status: The Case of Finland," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 37(5), pages 751-768, October.
    7. Thomas Talhelm & Xiawei Dong, 2024. "People quasi-randomly assigned to farm rice are more collectivistic than people assigned to farm wheat," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-10, December.
    8. Dominic Weinberg & Gonneke W J M Stevens & Catrin Finkenauer & Bert Brunekreef & Henriëtte A Smit & Alet H Wijga, 2019. "The pathways from parental and neighbourhood socioeconomic status to adolescent educational attainment: An examination of the role of cognitive ability, teacher assessment, and educational expectation," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(5), pages 1-20, May.
    9. Grätz, Michael, 2019. "When Less Conditioning Provides Better Estimates: Overcontrol and Collider Bias in Research on Intergenerational Mobility," Working Paper Series 2/2019, Stockholm University, Swedish Institute for Social Research.
    10. Marcenaro-Gutierrez, O.D. & Lopez-Agudo, L.A. & Henriques, C.O., 2021. "Are soft skills conditioned by conflicting factors? A multiobjective programming approach to explore the trade-offs," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 18-40.
    11. Stocké, Volker, 2007. "The motive for status maintenance and inequality in educational decisions : which of the parents defines the reference point?," Papers 07-20, Sonderforschungsbreich 504.
    12. Finger, Claudia, 2016. "Institutional constraints and the translation of college aspirations into intentions—Evidence from a factorial survey," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 46, pages 112-128.
    13. José Manuel Cordero Ferrera & Rosa Simancas Rodríguez (ed.), 2016. "Investigaciones de Economía de la Educación," E-books Investigaciones de Economía de la Educación, Asociación de Economía de la Educación, edition 1, volume 11, number 11.
    14. Michael Grätz, 2022. "When less conditioning provides better estimates: overcontrol and endogenous selection biases in research on intergenerational mobility," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 56(5), pages 3769-3793, October.
    15. Giambona, Francesca & Porcu, Mariano, 2015. "Student background determinants of reading achievement in Italy. A quantile regression analysis," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 95-107.
    16. Henrik Dobewall & Mirka Hintsanen & Kateryna Savelieva & Christian Hakulinen & Päivi Merjonen & Kia Gluschkoff & Liisa Keltikangas-Järvinen, 2019. "Intergenerational Transmission of Latent Satisfaction Reflected by Satisfaction Across Multiple Life Domains: A Prospective 32-year Follow-Up Study," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 20(3), pages 955-970, March.
    17. Olivia Evans & Romany McGuffog & Monica Gendi & Mark Rubin, 2022. "A First Class Measure: Evidence for a Comprehensive Social Class Scale in Higher Education Populations," Research in Higher Education, Springer;Association for Institutional Research, vol. 63(8), pages 1427-1452, December.
    18. Sipos, Norbert & Szabó-Bálint, Brigitta, 2021. "A karriersikeresség vizsgálata a gazdálkodási területen frissen végzettek körében [Examining the career-success dimensions in freshly considered economic spheres]," Közgazdasági Szemle (Economic Review - monthly of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences), Közgazdasági Szemle Alapítvány (Economic Review Foundation), vol. 0(5), pages 515-539.
    19. Maia Sieverding, 2015. "Intergenerational Mobility in Women's Employment Outcomes in Egypt," Working Papers 978, Economic Research Forum, revised Dec 2015.
    20. Barbara Zimmermann & Simon Seiler, 2019. "The Relationship between Educational Pathways and Occupational Outcomes at the Intersection of Gender and Social Origin," Social Inclusion, Cogitatio Press, vol. 7(3), pages 79-94.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:zbw:wzbpre:p2023002. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/wzbbbde.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.