Work

The Intergenerational Effects of Changes in Women's Educational Attainments

Year: 2006

Type: article

Abstract: The effect of the socioeconomic characteristics in one generation on the socioeconomic achievement of the next generation is the central concern of social stratification research. Researchers typically address this issue by analyzing the associations between the characteristics of parents and offspring. This approach, however, focuses on observed parent-offspring pairs and ignores that changes in the socioeconomic characteristics of one generation may alter the numbers and types of intergenerational family relationships created in the next one. Models of intergenerational effects that include marriage and fertility as well as the intergenerational transmission of socioeconomic status yield a richer account of intergenerational effects at both the family and population levels. When applied to a large sample of Indonesian women and their families, these models show that the effects of women's educational attainment on the educational attainments of the next generation are positive. However, the beneficial effects of increases in women's schooling on the educational attainment of their children are partially offset at the population level by a reduction in the overall number of children that a more educated population of women bears and enhanced by the more favorable marriage partners of better educated women.

Source: American Sociological Review

DOI: 10.1177/000312240607100402

Authors: Robert D. Mare, Vida Maralani

Institution: University of California, Los Angeles

Language: English

Topic: Intergenerational and Educational Inequality Studies

Subfield: Sociology and Political Science

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

SDGs: Reduced inequalities, Gender equality, Quality education

Open Access status: green

Funder: Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development