Gender differences in intergenerational occupational persistence and mobility in Central Europe

• Authors: Michael L. Smith
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

This article investigates intergenerational occupational persistence and mobility across Central Europe (Austria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia) on the basis of EU-SILC survey data from 2005, 2011, and 2019. Social Stratification in Eastern Europe survey data from 1993 is also used as a historical comparison. These surveys are uniquely suited for the analysis of occupational mobility due to their large sample sizes and inclusion of detailed parental occupation data. I report gender differences in total and net mobility rates based on the analysis of 7x7 occupational mobility tables, as well as predicted probabilities (derived from log odds from multinomial regression) of attaining specific occupational destinations based on parental occupational origins. The reproduction of occupational status is particularly strong in professional occupations (for both men and women), trade and crafts (for men), and sales/clerical occupations (for women), which seem to be in dynamic equilibrium. Compared to men, women’s increases in social fluidity (and higher rates of upward mobility) are shaped much more strongly by changes in occupational structure, though this has weakened in both the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Lastly, I find that women have much greater chances than men in upward mobility in attaining professional occupations from lower family origins, and that this trend seems to be strengthening in recent years.

Keywords

EN

occupational persistence; occupational mobility; social mobility; social reproduction

Discipline

• SOCIOLOGY: SOCIOLOGY

• Publisher: Institute of Sociology, Czech Academy of Sciences
• Journal: Sociologický časopis. Czech Sociological Review
• Year: 2024
• Volume: 60
• Issue: 6
• Pages: 623-663
• Document type: ARTICLE

Contributors

author

Michael L. Smith

• Sociologický časopis, redakce, Sociologický ústav AV ČR, v.v.i., Jilská 1, 110 00 Praha 1, Czech Republic