GENDER SEGREGATION IN OCCUPATIONAL EXPECTATIONS AND IN THE LABOUR MARKET: INTERNATIONAL VARIATION AND THE ROLE OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING SYSTEMS

Gender-specific segregation of occupations has remained a typical characteristic of contemporary labour markets. From an individual perspective, (gender-) specific positioning in the labour market is the result of longer-term developments over the life course; these may be influenced by specific macro-level conditions. For example, education and training systems may differ in the information they provide for individual educational and occupational decisions and in the biographical consequences of these decisions. This chapter analyses the potential relevance of education and training systems for gender-specific occupational expectations at a comparatively young age. The empirical analyses use data from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2000, 2003 and 2006 and from the European Labour Force Survey (ELFS), comparing occupational gender segregation in early individual expectations and in the labour force across 22 European countries. In a multi-level analysis, expectations are related to both individual-level predictors and characteristics of education and training systems. The results show that anticipated choices of gender-specific occupations are loosely related to characteristics of education and training systems. In particular, the degree of vocational enrolment seems to enforce the level of segregation. However, these associations are group-specific and rather small. Education and training systems also tend to have different consequences for the expectations of young women and young men. Gender segregation already exists at early biographical stages, but it is often modified by later adaptation and the selective behaviour of institutions and employers.