Abstract

In this article, we draw a parallel between equality of opportunity in educational transitions and equality of opportunity in academic careers. In both cases, many methodological problems can be ameliorated by the use of longitudinal rather than cross-sectional data. We illustrate this point by using Finnish full-population register data to follow the educational and academic careers of the 1964–1966 birth cohorts from birth to the present day. We show how the Finnish professoriate is highly selected both in terms of parental background and in terms of gender. Individuals of different backgrounds differ greatly in the likelihood of completing different educational and academic transitions, but much less in the age at which they make these transitions. By contrast, women’s academic careers differ from those of men both in terms of timing and in terms of rates, with women’s PhDs and full professorships seemingly delayed compared to those of men. We additionally show with the help of a 2015 cross-section of Finnish professors how such differences are easily overlooked in cross-sectional data.

Highlights

  • The social background and gender of the individuals who eventually reach the top of academia is of interest both with an eye to equality of opportunity in education and academia, and because the composition of the top of academia is likely to affect the nature and direction of teaching, research, and arguably society

  • We illustrate this point by showing who does and who does not reach the top of the Finnish academic career ladder by tracing the educational and academic outcomes of the Finnish 1964–1966 birth cohorts from birth to age 49 using population data that combines information from multiple administrative registers held at Statistics Finland

  • University education had gone through a rapid expansion between the 1960s and the 1980s, especially in rural areas (Välimaa, 2018), and the 1964–1966 birth cohorts that we study in this article had a width of educational opportunities available to them that would not have been available to their parents

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Summary

Introduction

The social background and gender of the individuals who eventually reach the top of academia is of interest both with an eye to equality of opportunity in education and academia, and because the composition of the top of academia is likely to affect the nature and direction of teaching, research, and arguably society. The same challenges are present when estimating equality of opportunity in academic careers In both cases, many statistical and interpretational problems can be greatly ameliorated by following cohorts over time rather than for example studying cross-sections of graduates or academics in any given year. At the end of the article, we use a full population cross-section to show that while in 2015 there were more male than female professors in Finland, their age distributions were similar to each other, especially for young professors This finding would on its own be consistent with an absence of delays in women’s academic careers.

Measuring Inequality of Opportunity
Inequalities in Academia
Finnish Higher Education
Data and Methods
Results
Discussion
Full Text
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