Upward Mobility and Gender in the Knowledge Economy

• In Event: Mini-Conference on Politics in Post-industrial Societies I: Women, Gender, Labor Markets and Political Structures

Abstract

Scholars of political behavior have recently paid much attention to experiences of downward mobility in increasingly knowledge-based societies, especially among older, lower-educated voters. However, educational expansion and changing occupational structures have also created opportunities for upward mobility among younger professionals – unprecedentedly so for women. This paper studies how men and women make sense of upward mobility (in combination with societal trends around them) and how this influences their political attitudes and behavior. We explore the importance of different reference points for men and women (e.g. comparisons to mother’s versus father’s/parents’ status), whether they interpret labor market success differently, and how upward social mobility may differentially relate to political attitudes (including gender-related ones) for men and women. Empirically, we draw on multiple original surveys fielded in various European countries between 2021 and 2023, which include objective and subjective measures of social mobility as well as attitudinal and electoral outcomes. If upward mobility differentially shapes the politics of (younger, educated) men and women, this may be a key element to ongoing changes in the electoral dynamics across advanced democracies.

Author

• Briitta van Staalduinen, University of Konstanz