Horizontal Stratification in Higher Education in Hong Kong: Changing Patterns and Levels of Gender Segregation

• In Event: 497 - Regular Session. Horizontal Stratification and Fields of Study in Higher Education

Abstract

“Horizontal stratification” refers to systematic differences in labor market outcomes experienced by individuals with the same level of education based on the type of degrees they obtain. Rapid expansion in higher education and record numbers of graduates joining the labor markets has meant that the kind of degrees plays an ever more important role in labor market fortunes. We analyze change over time of a key aspect of horizontal stratification among university graduates in Hong Kong: specialization of study. Using micro-sample Hong Kong census data for a period that captures both expansion of higher education and economic restructuring, we examine trends in the choice of field among male and female university graduates. We estimate log-linear models that show increasing gender differences in the choice of particular fields over time. Our preferred specification includes three patterns that describe different subsets of specialties: stability, convergence, and reversal of gender differences. Overall gender differences in choice of specialization grew in magnitude as enrolment levels surged, which is consistent with recent cross-national research suggesting that as countries become economically more advanced, gender segregation by higher education specialization grows (Charles and Bradley 2009). The increased gender segregation during four decades when Hong Kong’s economy grew impressively and its higher education sector expanded provides more direct evidence of a link between economic development and gender-based differentials in university specialization than cross-sectional comparative analyses can.

Authors

• Theodore P. Gerber, University of Wisconsin-Madison

• Sin Yi Cheung, Cardiff University