Gender and social class in study choice: narratives of youth transitions in Spain

Abstract

Social inequality regarding gender and social class is a topic of long-term interest in social research. However, the intersections between the two variables in the reproduction of inequalities in the field of education require further investigation. The longitudinal research project 'Social Inequality in Higher Education' aims to shed light on these processes in Spain. In this article, we focus on the intersection of social class and gender in the transition from school-to-university, specifically on study choice. We show several gender differences, e.g. a male tendency to avoid displaying insecurity that may hamper their access to support, in particular in the intersection with lower social class. Thanks to our mixed-methods approach, combining focus groups and personal interviews from a longitudinal perspective, we are able to compare these methods regarding the gender and class differences they produce. ; This study was supported by a PhD scholarship granted to Tanja Strecker by the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports [FPU 2012], by the Catalan Government funding of the research group Centre for Youth and Society Studies (JOVIS) [2014SGR0683] and by EU funding [H2020-MSCA-RISE-2014-645666]. This research article has received a grant for its linguistic revision from the Language Institute of the University of Lleida (2016 call).