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Intergenerational transmission of gender segregation : Parents’ Roles in Shaping Children’s Occupational Aspirations

Most men and women are employed in occupations largely dominated by people of their own sex. Since occupational aspirations have proven to predict future labor market behavior it is of importance to study young boys’ and girls’ occupational preferences. With the use of a survey based on Swedish 15-year-old children this study examines the association between the gender composition of parent’s occupation and the gender composition of children’s most preferred occupation. Drawing from the sex-role model that emphasizes the importance of the same-sex parents in forming children’s preferences, this study has investigated whether the gender composition of mothers’ (fathers’) occupations has an impact on the gender composition of girls’ (boys’) occupational aspirations. In line with previous research, the sex-role model received support for girls. But the observed association between fathers and sons disappear upon adding control variables. It was also hypothesized that the mothers’ generation entry into high status occupation would make children more likely to also regard their opposite sex parents as a role model. However, this hypothesis did not receive support. The result for girls can be interpreted as a sign that sex-role modeling some extent can be one reason behind the persistent sex segregation in the labor market.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:su-117125
Date January 2015
CreatorsHuuva, Lou
PublisherStockholms universitet, Sociologiska institutionen
Source SetsDiVA Archive at Upsalla University
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeStudent thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text
Formatapplication/pdf
Rightsinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess

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