Gender and social class in study choice: narratives of youth transitions in Spain

Abstract

Social inequality regarding gender and social class is a topic of longterm interest in social research. However, the intersections between the two variables in the reproduction of inequalities in the field of education require further investigation. The longitudinal research project 'Social Inequality in Higher Education' aims to shed light on these processes in Spain. In this article, we focus on the intersection of social class and gender in the transition from school-to-university, specifically on study choice. We show several gender differences, e.g. a male tendency to avoid displaying insecurity that may hamper their access to support, in particular in the intersection with lower social class. Thanks to our mixedmethods approach, combining focus groups and personal interviews from a longitudinal perspective, we are able to compare these methods regarding the gender and class differences they produce.

This work was supported with a PhD scholarship granted to Tanja Strecker by the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports [FPU 2012] and by the Catalan government funding of the research group Centre for Youth and Society Studies (JOVIS) [2014SGR0683]. Departament d’Universitats, Recerca i Societat de la Informació; Horizon 2020 [H2020-MSCA-RISE-2014-645666]; Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte; Language Institute of the University of Lleida.