Education, Homogamy, and Inequality

A Twenty-two Year Intergenerational Perspective of Canadian Women and Men

Lesley Andres

University of British Columbia

SLLS, 2010

InterviewsInterviews

Paths on Life’s Way Sample

1989

Interviews with Gr. 12 students

1990

First Follow-up

1993

Second Follow-up

2003

Fourth Follow-up

1998

Third Follow-up

2010

Fifth Follow-up

Phase 1: how young people made choices about post-high school destinations

Phase 2: influence of social and cultural capital on individuals’ eventual educational and occupational attainment

Phase 3: the extent to which various forms of capital were endurable over time

Phase 4: multifaceted nature and sequence of life events, in comparison with Australia

Phase 5: transitions and lives as lived; intergenerational transmission of capital

Data

Post-secondary Education

Work

Background and Household

Health and Wellbeing

Purpose

• the extent to which today’s couples are homogamous

• the changes in homogamy between respondents’ parents and respondents

• how homogamy translates into – levels of family income

– how the current recession had an impact– wellbeing

Theoretical PerspectivesDegree to which individuals of similar social origin and with similar

characteristics marry or partner with each other

• social class, religion, race/ethnicity, education

Educational Homogamy

Increased or decreased educational homogamy?

• higher participation in post-secondary education

• higher labour force participation by women

• ascriptive homogamy vs achievement homogamy

non-Participant

universityparticipant

non-universityparticipant

non-participant

non-univcompleter

univ non-completer

university completer

1989 1993 1998 2003 2010

non-participant

non-participant

non-participant

non-completer

non-completer

non-completer

university completer

university completer

university completer

34%

19%

21%21%

2%

18%

43%

21%

18%

22%

37%

41%

non-univcompleter

non-univcompleter

non-univcompleter

15%

78%

5%24%

71%

10%

85%

7%

5%

non-univnon-completer

Low homogamy Heterogamy

High homogamy

m 100,000f 87,500

m 125,000f 110,000

m 145,000f 120,750

Median income $

Single, < bach Single, bach >

m. 41,000f 37,000

m 62,000f 79,760

Median income $

British Columbia median income all families 65,780couple families 71,880

Canada net worth of family units 35 – 44 135,408

Financially Well Off from 1 Year Ago

Financially Well Off from 1 Year Ago

How did the 2008 Recession Affect You?

Females Males

Low High Low High

No effect 39 56 28 43

Job negative 28 16 17 8

Job positive 3 5 7 10

Two incomes 14 15 2 5

Savings 21 21 22 41

Savings 21 9 2 14

Feeling pinch 15 11 11 4

Negative Effect 54%

Had decrease in yearly salary/benefits/etc.

I still receive the same amount of pay as a teacher, but there were cuts to education . . . . My husband's work was more severely affected

which meant cutting back on the "extras,” as well as less savings.

Job Loss 46%

My husband experience 3 months of reduced/nowork.

My husband has lost his job 2x in past 3 years.

Not my work - my husband's.

Negative Effect 36%

I had to take a 6% wage decrease since last May + my husband’s business he startedin 2007 has been affected as well.

Our office has downsized, additional stress/pressure, less hours not when wanted.

Job Loss 64%

Have been on and off E.I. Currently on EI waiting for economy to turn around. Relationship of 21 years split up.

My husband was laid off in 2008 & with this our main income disappeared.

While our total family earnings + my own business were negatively affected, a sharp decline in real estate prices allowed us to afford the home we wanted, and a car. (high homogamy female)

My career changed for personal reasons and has not affected my ability to earn an income. The negative side is we can’t sell our expensive house and that is affecting our finances. But we did take a significant advantage in the stock market after it crashed but that’s all in [retirement savings]. (low homogamy female)

14% High Homogamy25% Heterogamy 2% Low Homogamy

Low mortgage rates allowed for lower payments.

There was a small +ve effect on my RRSP because of investments I made at the bottom.

My family is currently shopping for U.S. vacation property… low prices & a strong Cdn dollar should prove very beneficial.

Challenges

•untangling quantitative and qualitative findings to be true to people’s lives

•complementarity of mixed methods approaches

•adding other dimensions of the life course across time

CooperativeSkills

Culture

EducationalEnrichment

comlit03

readsk03

mathlit03

scilit03

closefr03

largefr03

coopsk03

compks03

expcul03

knocul03

knosoc03

othlan03

french03

spelea03

finart03

edenr03

ledopot03

AcademicLiteracy

AcademicLiteracy

0.30

0.76

0.55

0.36

0.61

0.59

LISREL 2 (107)=177.71 <.001; RMSEA=.041

3rd Generation

Transmission of Capitalto Paths Respondents’ Children

CulturalCapital

PrimarySocialCapital

AcademicCapital

Dispositions1989

Post-secondary

Status

Dispositions1998

0.15

0.33

0.79

0.11 0.09

0.62

0.27

LISREL 2 (530)=717.36 <.001; RMSEA=.031

-0.0

1

AcademicLiteracy

CooperativeSkills

Culture

EducationalEnrichment

0.40

0.13

0.12

-0.03

0.10

0.2

0