Unfolding Lives

The educational expansion of the last decades has broadened access to higher education. Especially girls caught up with boys in their educational attainments (DiPrete and Buchmann 2013). Whether educational inequalities by social origin decreased is less clear. Moreover, there is evidence that this trend might be gender specific: Becker and Muller (2011) show that the effects of social origin on educational outcomes remained strong for boys but less so for girls. At the same time, improved education for women has not translated into equal work opportunities for men and women (Blau and Kahn 2016). So far, in research on educational transitions and/or labour market inequalities, effects of social origin and gender have rarely been studied jointly (for an exception see Rivera and Tilcsik 2016). The aim of our research is to fill this gap and better understand the mechanisms that lead to differences in occupational outcomes at the intersection of social origin and gender by considering different pathways from compulsory education into the labour market. Theoretically, we combine two lines of argumentation: First, we draw on the literature on primary and secondary effects of origin (Bourdieu and Passeron 1971; Boudon 1974; Breen and Goldthorpe 1997). Second, we assume that the horizontal gender segregation by field of study, vocational education and training (VET), and occupation (Barone and Schizzerotto 2011; Charles and Bradley 2009; Gabay-Egozi et al. 2014) can translate into vertical stratification (for Switzerland see for example: Imdorf and Hupka-Brunner 2015; Hupka-Brunner et al. 2011; Zimmermann 2012). Furthermore, we pursue a life-course perspective to identify cumulative advantages or disadvantages over the educational trajectory (Sackmann 2007, Chapter 6). In order to investigate this empirically, we use data from the TREE (Transitions from Education to Employment) panel study that follows a large sample of Swiss PISA 2000 participants in their transition from education to their labour market position at age 30 (nine data collection waves, 2001–2014). In a first step, we employ sequence analysis to identify relevant clusters of sequences of education and job episodes of the respondents. Then, we conduct regression analysis to determine how these types of educational pathways influence job outcomes depending on social origin and gender. Classifying the pathways using sequence analysis allows us to reduce the complexity of individual life courses without sacrificing the strength of panel data. Preliminary results show, first, that educational pathways differ by social origin and gender. The higher the social status of the parents, the more likely it is that children pass through one of the academic pathways. Similarly, women more often to run through an academic track, whereas men more frequently complete vocational training. Second, these different trajectories lead to unequal occupational status. Net of the educational trajectory also a significant effect of social origin remains. Finally, gender effects on job outcomes are specific to educational trajectories, indicating that they result from horizontal segregation.

Recent significant changes in the social behavior of young people in the education and in the labor market are analysed in the paper on the state statistics data and the results of our own sociological research. The paper is a continuation of publications on a project aimed at exploring the new characteristics of the educational and professional trajectories of young people. Expanded analyses of the dynamics confirmed previously obtained results and broaden the framework of interpretation of the ongoing changes. The analysis of the choice of vocational or higher education is continued. Extension of the time range of the analysis made it possible to establish the periodization of the involvement of young people in higher and vocational education and to identify the boundaries of the twenty-year period (1995–2015) when higher education prevailed. An increase in the training of middle-level specialists (ISCED 5) in vocational education was demonstrated, with an almost mirror-like drop in the involvement in training programs for skilled workers (ISCED 4). It is shown that the choice between vocational and higher education is connected—through the choice of the future profession and, accordingly, the fi eld of training — with the possibilities and limitations of the available set of options for the future professional trajectory. Analysis of students’ tracks revealed that there are traditional trajectories as well as complex trajectories that include different levels of education and working experience on the labor market as an important stage in an individual’s biography. The new characteristics of educational and professional trajectories provide young people with more opportunities in a changing socio-economic environment. At the same time the choice of vocational education is often compelled. Graduates of universities and vocational education are in a different position in the labor market. An analysis of statistical data in the dynamics has shown both common with global trends and specific characteristics of the social behavior of Russian youth. The given data in dynamics allow us to identify the origins of what is currently observed and make attempts to predict new features of the process of reproduction and accumulation of human capital.

Sirs—Khlat and Darmon 1 extend the ‘Hispanic Paradox’, the low all-cause mortality that Hispanics experience in the US in spite of a low socioeconomic status, to Mediterranean migrant populations in Europe. They analyse the role that a ‘salmon bias’ (the re-migration of ill migrants to their country of origin) and a ‘healthy migrant effect’ (a selection of healthy individuals at the time of immigration) might play. One of the key questions they raise is why a mortality advantage of migrants would persist over decades. In view of low socioeconomic status and poor working conditions, as well as presumably deteriorating health behaviours with acculturation, any mortality advantage that migrants experience would be expected to disappear quickly with time spent in the host country. We believe this is not always the case. Acculturation may lead to improving health behaviours and thereby declining mortality, even in the presence of socioeconomic and health inequalities that migrants face. Moving from one’s own country to another can bring substantial benefits to individuals and their families in terms of better access to effective medical care. Moreover, inequalities in access to care which migrants face may lessen with increasing length of time the respective migrant group has been established in the host country. We illustrate this by examining maternal mortality (International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision [ICD-9]: 630‐676), a particularly sensitive indicator of inequity, 2 and one that is unlikely to be affected by salmon bias or healthy migrant effect. Obstetric complications will not usually lead to a maternal death if prompt, adequate treatment is available. We assessed trends in maternal mortality among German women and among women of Turkish nationality residing in former West Germany, based on routine death registration data for 1980‐1997. Two million people of Turkish nationality reside in Germany, constituting the largest migrant group. Many came as work migrants in the 1960s and 1970s or followed later as family members. They often hold low-paid jobs in cleaning and construction, are exposed to numerous health risks, and may face cultural and language barriers when accessing health care. For comparison with the population of origin, we present estimates of maternal mortality in Turkey. 2‐4 In the study period, 713 364 live births and 106 maternal deaths among Turkish women in West Germany were reported. The Figure shows that their crude maternal mortality ratio (maternal deaths per 100 000 live births) over time converged upon that of German women. The maternal mortality ratio of Turkish women in Germany, standardized to the age distribution of German mothers, declined from 33.9 (95% CI: 25.0, 42.8) in the period 1980‐1985 to 6.3 (95%CI: 2.6, 9.9) in 1992‐1997. Mortality from abortion and ectopic pregnancy (ICD-9: 630‐639), conditions that require immediate access to emergency care, showed a particularly steep decline. The horizontal bars in the Figure 1 represent the—considerably higher—estimates of maternal mortality ratio for Turkey as a whole. Firstly, our findings illustrate an aspect of health inequality between countries. After migration to affluent nations, regular (documented) migrants from lower-income countries may experience substantial health advantages, relative to their populations of origin, as far as avoidable causes of mortality are concerned. 5 More importantly, our findings suggest that access to, and utilization of, health services is not only determined by an individual migrant’s length of stay. It appears to improve with the length of time a migrant population has been established in the host country, an—albeit crude—proxy of acculturation. The observed decline in maternal mortality thus is an active achievement, not only by the health services, but also by the migrant women and their families. 6 Given the complexity of the association between migration and mortality experience, future epidemiological research on this topic should be model-driven (for example, based on a better model of the healthy migrant effect), rather than engaging in attempts to explain puzzling empirical evidence post hoc.

The article presents the results of a sociological analysis of changes in the educational behaviour of various groups of the Russian population. This analysis is significant because education is one of those social domains that are associated with the accumulation and application of human capital. The latter is relevant not only to the stage of modern socioeconomic development but also to the current geopolitical situation. Theoretical and methodological approaches to studying the social behaviour of various population groups in these areas are multidimensional. In this article, the primary focus of research is on educational and professional trajectories and strategies. The author defines these concepts, emphasising the non-synonymous nature of trajectories and strategies. The objective of the article is to clarify the dynamics of educational trajectories of different generations. The length, content, and variability of educational trajectories in an intergenerational context are being analysed. The empirical basis is formed by the combined RLMS HSE database for individuals from 1994 to 2021, that identifies six generations of Russians according to the classification proposed by V.V. Radaev. An exploratory analysis of the 30th wave of the survey allowed us to identify four generations for further comparative analysis: the "stagnation" generation, the "reform" generation, the millennial generation, and the zoomer generation – 25%, 19.8%, 24.1%, and 24.6% of the total number of respondents in 2021, respectively. A substantive analysis of the educational and professional trajectories of 16,465 respondents was conducted. A typology of their educational trajectories is proposed: direct, multi-component, shortest, absent, and extended. An increase in the proportion of those choosing multi-component trajectories among representatives of the millennial and zoomer generations is demonstrated. The conditions for implementing the chosen educational and professional strategy are examined, as well as the combination of factors associated with the choice of a direct or multi-component educational trajectory. It was found that, while the median lengths of educational trajectories for different Russian generations, expressed in years of schooling, are similar, their variability and fullness are not homogeneous. On the one hand, the increasing number of young people among millennials and zoomers choosing multi-component trajectories for vocational education is associated with the development of vocational education. On the other hand, from the perspective of practical recommendations and social management in education and the labour market, it is a priority to note the relative flexibility of the Russian vocational education system, that allows for the reduction of inequality in educational opportunities.

There has been a substantial convergence in the educational systems of many countries.' Starting with different educational backgrounds, political systems, and economies, both advanced and developing countries have developed similar educational ideologies, institutions, and curricula. One link among some common developments is vocationalism-the orientation of education around preparation for labor markets. In both advanced countries and LDCs, there has been a tendency to consider specific skill training, especially secondary-level vocational education, to be the principal manifestation of vocationalism. This conception is too narrow: every level of schooling, including the university, has become suffused with vocational goals, differentiated along vocational lines, and judged by vocational criteria. To understand the power of vocationalism, it is important to examine the full range of its consequences. In the first part of this article I will discuss different manifestations of vocationalism-understood as specific skill training-in both advanced countries and LDCs. The second section examines some larger consequences of vocationalism, especially its role in educational inflation and in defining the social roles of education. A finding common to many countries is that, despite claims of economic "relevance," vocationalized approaches prove to have little economic justification, fail to resolve the problems that they are designed to address, and generate new problems for education systems. The final section hypothesizes why, given these discouraging findings, vocational solutions to educational and economic problems continue to surface.

This research paper explores the social and economic lives of transgender (TG) individuals in Solapur district located in Maharashtra state. It is majorly focused on their struggles and challenges. The city of Solapur is known for its rich multicultural and multilingual heritage that provides a unique perspective to study the complex realities faced by TG individuals. Transgender individuals are known to be one of the most marginalized groups who constantly face systemic discrimination that leads in socio-economic vulnerabilities. The study, through the process of detailed survey of 100 transgender volunteers who were diverse in age group, educational background, and religious affiliations, explores the challenges faced by transgender. Key challenges of social exclusion, educational barriers, unemployment, economic dependency, and emotional distress have been identified and analyzed. Moreover, this study looks at how the process of stigmatization and lack of acceptance from the family, local communities, and workplaces contributes to a cycle of poverty and marginalization. Findings indicate the interplay between religion, societal norms, and economic aspects in the lives of TG individuals. The study provides an in-depth analysis of religious beliefs and cult practices and how they shape their identity, support systems, and socio-cultural acceptance. Economic sustenance is mostly acquired through begging, traditional cultural performances, or self-employment, while some of them are even community leaders. All these efforts notwithstanding, systemic barriers continue to inhibit access to stable employment, health care, and education. This study highlighted the need for inclusive policies, awareness campaigns and community-driven initiatives to foster acceptance and integration of TG individuals into the mainstream socio-economic framework. In doing so, this research contributes to a growing discourse on gender inclusivity and equality in India, particularly within the context of smaller cities like Solapur.  

Despite an employment rate of 76.6% for women in Germany, significant issues persist with regard to the labour market situation of women in the country. These include the prevalence of part-time work, the under-representation of women in senior management positions and the existence of pay gaps. This article employs data from the German Statistical Office spanning the period from 2000 to 2022 to examine the growth in part-time employment among women and its ramifications. The paper demonstrates that part-time work is a prevalent phenomenon in female-dominated sectors such as health and education. This is driven by a combination of economic conditions, the necessity to reconcile work and family life, and legal regulations. This situation consequently results in women facing lower remuneration and constrained career prospects. The necessity to balance work and family responsibilities represents a significant challenge for women, impeding their career development and negatively impacting their job performance and workplace commitment. These dynamics serve to perpetuate gender inequalities in the labour market, thereby preventing women from realising their full potential at work. This article makes a significant contribution to the existing literature on the relationship between part-time work and gender inequalities in the German labour market by providing a detailed analysis of this complex relationship. The article offers valuable insights into the potential of legal regulations, such as the Temporary Part-Time Work Act enacted in 2019, to alleviate the adverse effects of part-time work on women. The research is distinctive in its comprehensive examination of the socio-economic dynamics of part-time work, its legal framework, and its impact on gender equality, based on an extensive data analysis conducted over an extended period. By offering a detailed and nuanced understanding of these issues, the study draws attention to the ongoing challenges women face in the labour market and suggests potential policy interventions to promote gender equality. This article emphasises the necessity for targeted measures to facilitate women's career progression and offset the adverse consequences of part-time employment, thereby contributing to a more equitable labour market.

T HE application of capital theory to decisions on individual improvement, and in particular improvement of earning capacity, has provided a framework for the understanding of many aspects of observed behavior regarding education, health, occupational choice, mobility, etc., as rational investment of present resources for the purpose of enjoying future returns. The formulation by Friedman and Kuznets (1945) and the significant development of the theory by Becker (1962, 1964) and Mincer (1958, 1962) provided a novel view of the life cycle of earnings by linking it to the time profile of investment in human capital: People make most of their investments in themselves when they are young, and to a large extent by foregoing current earnings. Observed earnings are therefore relatively low at early years, and they rise as investment declines and as returns on past investments are realized. The main reason why investment is undertaken mostly by the young is that they have a longer period over which they can re-

The recent push to keep older adults in the labour force glosses over who is likely to follow what kind of employment trajectory and why. In this paper, we broaden understandings of later-life labour market involvement by applying a comparative gendered life course perspective. Our data come from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe and the Health and Retirement Study (US), two representative panel studies of individuals aged 50-plus. Using a unique modeling strategy, we examine employment biographies for older women and men from four nations with diverse policy regimes (Germany, Italy, Sweden, and the US), along with their links to family experiences and earlier attachment to the labour force. We find that, in every nation, women prevail in groups representing a weak(er) attachment to the labour market and men in groups signifying a strong(er) attachment. However, this pattern is much stronger for Germany and Italy than for Sweden and the US. Similarly, both family experiences and prior employment matter more for later-life labour market involvement in Germany and Italy. Our findings demonstrate that older adults' employment trajectories are gendered; moreover, there is evidence that they are influenced by policies related not only to paid work but also to caregiving, and by those affecting not only current decisions but also those made earlier in the life course.

The research examined the relationship between students’ aptitude on students’ career choice in Technical Secondary Schools in the South West Region of Cameroon. This study was predicated on the understanding that technical secondary school students face numerous challenges during making a career choice earlier in the academic ladder necessitating specific intervention to enhance a stable career choice. The researchers hypothesized that diagnosing and appropriately directing students’ aptitude could serve as a fundamental framework for developing clarity and certainty among technical secondary schools students. Methodologically, the study employed a mixed-methods approach with a concurrent nested design, encompassing both quantitative and qualitative elements. The research sample comprised of 20 students and 45 guidance counsellors selected from the South West Region of Cameroon with selection criteria based on document analysis for students and the division with most populated guidance counsellors. Data collection was facilitated through questionnaires, and the analysis incorporated both descriptive and inferential statistical methods. The Likelihood ratio test was used in testing the hypotheses from data collected from the guidance counsellors. Independent Sample T-test was also used to compare how students in both the control and experimental group at pre-test and post-test level differ in their mean score. The qualitative data derived from open ended questions were analysed using the thematic analysis approach with the aid of themes. Descriptive findings revealed compelling evidence that students’ aptitude have a very strong and significant effect on students’ career choice. A substantial majority of the guidance counsellors 90.8% with a high mean value of 3.45 on a scale of 1-4 were of the opinion that students’ aptitude influence students’ career choice as indicated by a high contingency value of 0.783 on a scale 0 to 1, p-value 0.000< 0.05. This suggest that career choice is stable when aptitude is diagnosed and appropriately directed. Based on these findings, the researchers proposed several recommendations emphasizing the critical role of students’ aptitude. Career educators were advised to engage in producing an individualized aptitude enhancement plan for better management of students with inconsistent career choices, encourage students develop greater aptitude in careers within their trade

Barriers in teaching are defined as all nuisances between the factors of the teaching process. Nuisances hamper the teaching process and affect the quality of educational communication and learning outcomes. The information won't become a part of student's knowledge, because he/she can't imagine it and understand it. Overcoming communicational barriers is everyone's need and obligation, this particularly applies to the people who are responsible for establishing the effective communication system. Depending on the criteria, barriers are classified as psychological, linguistic, educational, social, economic, technical and other barriers. Teaching in general, and the teaching of computer science can be organized and therefore studied in terms of cybernetic didactic theory, in other words, system's theory and communication models. In the teaching of Computer Science, educational barriers are in the form of complex, too extensive and outdated textbooks, as well as unavailable actual technical literature. The conclusions of the paper are derived from the research conducted on students from high and technical schools in Vojvodina. The sample includes high schools in several towns, while the pilot study additionally includes elementary schools. As independent appraisers, students of the University of Novi Sad give their opinion about educational barriers in high schools. In computer science teaching, several types of barriers were detected by students' evaluations and assessments based on interviewing techniques. The detected language barriers have low intensity, they permeate all other barriers: educational, psychological, technical, ergonomic, socioeconomic, and they vary depending on the demographic characteristics of the respondents. This paper points to the language barriers in teaching computer science, and also in IT education through systems theory and communication processes. Data were analyzed using statistical methods. For determining variables' interrelation, the multiple-regression factor analyses by Gutman-Kaiser criterion was applied.

This article compares the education, employment, and care work biographical sequences of Canadian and German women and men from late adolescence into mid-adulthood. Through the lenses of comparative gendered life course theory and welfare regime theory, sequence and cluster analyses are used to determine the adult life course sequences of women and men in each country and to assess the extent to which they differ across contexts. The analyses reveal clear gender differences in work–family balance in labour market participation and unpaid care work. Groups also differ strongly on educational attainment, income, and family composition. Comparatively, gender differences are less marked in the Canadian context. These results suggest that differing gendered trajectories result in diverse outcomes depending on the national context, shaping different outcomes for women cross-nationally. Our findings highlight how historical and contemporary country-specific welfare state policies support or hinder women as active and productive members of society.

The aim of this study is to unravel the impact of societal change in West Germany on educational attainment and its attendant social disparities for cohorts born between 1919 and 1986. Therefore, we analyse whether modernization trends have modified access to, and success in, general, vocational, and higher education for consecutive birth cohorts. To explain how these processes have affected class differentials in educational attainment, we assume that the interplay of the changing occupational structure at the macro level and intergenerational status maintenance via investment in the education of offspring is—among other influences—the key mechanism for long-term educational expansion and for decreasing inequalities of opportunity in the educational system. The empirical bases of our investigation are clusters of time series for macro changes and retrospective individual data for 11 birth cohorts from the German Life History Study and the National Educational Panel Study for educational outcomes. We apply piecewise exponential event-history models to analyse the direct and indirect impacts of societal change on educational trajectories and social disparities in educational attainment. The results provide an understanding of historical variations in educational transitions and attainment associated with modernization in the social, political, economic, and cultural spheres.

The Career Mystique: Cracks in American Dream. Phyllis Moen and Patricia Roehling. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield. 2004. 289 pp. ISBN 0-7425-2861-8. $65.00 (cloth). ISBN 0-7425-2862-6. $22.95 (paperback). Many have criticized structure of jobs and careers, which require degree of devotion incompatible with family responsibilities. In The Career Mystique, Phyllis Moen and Patricia Roehling extend this argument by approaching it from a gendered life course perspective. They argue that the issue is not how employees can balance their personal with demands of their jobs, but how and of policies and practices built up around it constrain women's and men's options at every stage of their lives (p. 22). Whereas Betty Friedan developed idea of mystique to problematize fulfillment stemming from domestic life, Moen and Roehling develop complementary concept of career mystique to problematize rewards of all-encompassing paid labor. They challenge belief that long hours of hard work bring job security and upward mobility to either majority of men or majority of women. Nevertheless, as they show, this myth still shapes not only individuals' expectations and values but also governmental policies and corporate regulations, creating a career regime that is out of sync with of contemporary workers. Moen and Roehling argue that and feminine have emerged in tandem as two gendered components of American Dream. When feminist movement challenged expectations of feminine mystique, however, it failed to challenge mystique. Designed to coexist with feminine mystique, now reigns supreme for both women and men, either ignoring work of social reproduction that was glorified by feminine or promoting an image of superwoman who combines a with being primarily responsible for childrearing and other unpaid work. As a result, both creates a care deficit and perpetuates gender divide. Further, assumes a lockstep progressing from full-time education to full-time employment to full-time leisure of retirement. Even though such lockstep careers were always unattainable for a substantial part of workforce, a large portion of employees in 1950s did have them. As job market changed and as more women climbed on bandwagon, however, this American Dream increasingly became a myth for majority of labor force. On one hand, job requirements remained essentially same as they were when only men were expected to follow mystique: Individuals are still expected to work long hours and put their jobs and careers above all else. On other hand, employment rewards have drastically changed: Even for White, middle-class men, their incomes are no longer sufficient to meet family needs and require dual earner arrangements; hard work and loyalty no longer guarantee job security; and link between seniority and higher income is frequently disrupted by layoffs. Indeed, the Faustian bargain of trading a lifetime of paid work for a lifetime of income security is probably gone forever (p. 9). After introductory chapter's discussion of concept of mystique, book takes reader through gendered life course and uses a variety of quantitative and qualitative data to examine women's and men's experiences with jobs and families and to document influence of on their lives. Chapters 2 and 3 examine occupational aspirations of children and young women and men, demonstrating that they learn myth of success early in life. …

BackgroundAmblyopia is a neurodevelopmental condition resulting in reduced vision for which whole population child vision screening is undertaken. Cross-sectional studies have established an association between amblyopia and lower academic self-concept, slower reading speed. No difference has been found in educational performance in adolescence whilst there are mixed associations with educational attainment in adults. Educational trajectories and intentions have not been studied previously. We analyse if those treated for amblyopia have different educational performance and trajectories for core subjects during statutory schooling, or subsequent higher education (university) intentions than their peers without eye conditions.Methods and findingsData from the Millennium Cohort Study of children born in the United Kingdom in 2000–01 and followed-up to age 17 years (n = 9989). Using a validated approach drawing on parental self-report on eye conditions and treatment coded by clinical reviewers, participants were grouped into mutually exclusive categories: no eye conditions, strabismus alone, refractive amblyopia, strabismic/mixed (refractive plus strabismic) amblyopia. The outcomes were levels and trajectories of passing English, Maths, Science at ages 7–16 years, passing national exams at age 16, and intentions at ages 14–17 to pursue higher (university) education. Adjusted analyses showed that amblyopia status was not associated with performance in English, Maths, and Science at any key stage, attainment in national exams, or intending to go to university. Similarly, the age-related trajectories of performance in core subjects and higher education intentions did not differ between the groups. There were no significant differences in main reason for having or not having university intentions.ConclusionsWe found no associations between a history of amblyopia and either adverse performance or age-related attainment trajectories in core subjects during key stages of statutory schooling as well as the absence of an association with intentions for higher education. These results should be reassuring to affected children and young people, and their families, teachers and physicians.