Research papers and publications

A comparison of 61 countries and regions shows that greater economic security is associated with wider gender gaps in aspirations for mathematics-related work. Higher relative STEM pay and greater women’s representation in STEM occupations are associated with narrower gaps. Similar gaps can nevertheless arise from different patterns among girls and boys. Distinguishing security, returns, and access as separate dimensions of economic opportunity offers a more precise account of how national contexts relate to gendered aspirations.

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Following German students over time, this study finds that occupational interests account for much of the gender gap in STEM entry. Once students enter STEM, higher earnings premiums are associated with less switching out, whereas longer working hours relative to other occupations are associated with more switching out. These later patterns are similar for women and men. The findings connect cultural and economic explanations of educational inequality by showing why entry and persistence require different accounts.

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TIMSS data on more than 750,000 adolescents show that the gender-equality paradox depends on how national context and aspiration gaps are measured. Greater affluence is associated with wider gaps in mathematics-related occupational aspirations, while gender-equality measures show different patterns across constructs and geographic comparisons. Separating girls’ and boys’ aspirations also reveals that similar gaps can conceal substantial differences in both groups’ aspiration levels. The study clarifies why explanations of gendered aspirations need to distinguish economic resources, institutions, and social norms, and to consider both aspiration levels and the gap between them.

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Among students entering higher education in Germany, women from higher-income families are less likely to choose STEM, and the gender gap is wider at higher income levels. This pattern persists after accounting for vocational interests, gender-role attitudes, and job values, while comparable gender differences are not clearly established for wealth. By distinguishing household income from accumulated assets, the study shows how family economic advantage can accompany greater gender segregation in educational specialization.

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Following STEM graduation patterns in 113 countries from 1999 to 2023, this study finds that rising societal affluence is associated with a wider gender gap. The widening is linked to higher STEM graduation odds among men and varies across fields of study. The study advances the debate on the affluence paradox by tracing change within countries and identifying the gender-specific patterns that aggregate gaps can conceal.

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Among urban STEM graduates in China, women and men appear equally likely to hold jobs matching their degrees when fields are pooled. Within broad fields, employed women are about nine percentage points less likely to have a match; women’s concentration in medicine masks this disadvantage in aggregate comparisons. Women are also more often outside paid work as homemakers, particularly when they have young children. The study shows how inequality in the use of STEM credentials can be overlooked unless field composition and care-related non-employment are examined.

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Among Chinese homeowning families, women whose households hold liquid financial or productive assets beyond the home are more likely to enter science and engineering. The adjusted difference is about 13 percentage points, while the association among men is small and imprecisely estimated. This gender contrast persists after accounting for income and net wealth. The findings are consistent with resources supporting women’s entry into male-dominated fields and show why asset composition matters for understanding gendered educational opportunity.

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Using Chinese family panel data, this study links historical housing institutions to gendered engineering choices. Greater exposure to housing appreciation, measured through cities’ earlier state-sector housing investment, is associated with a wider male–female gap in engineering entry. This association is stronger in families with more traditional gender norms. The findings connect market transition to educational stratification, showing how advantages rooted in public housing can remain relevant to gendered specialization across generations.

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Chinese census and family panel data reveal distinct changes in educational and family-origin matching between spouses. Among couples with wives aged 27–29, rising college attainment accounted for about 93% of the 1990–2010 increase in college–college unions, while the relative college boundary weakened. Family panel estimates also suggest increasing resemblance in spouses’ parental education, with the strength of this trend varying across specifications. The study distinguishes changes in partner availability from educational and family-origin sorting, clarifying why more college–college couples need not signal stronger social closure.

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European Social Survey data from 29 countries show that higher education is associated with less suspicion that scientists manipulate or conceal evidence. Among men, this association is weaker at lower household incomes. The study links skepticism about scientific conduct to the economic circumstances accompanying educational credentials, showing how education’s association with public confidence in scientists varies across social positions.

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Interviews and follow-up accounts from women ride-hailing drivers in China show that platform access does not secure lasting recognition as a competent worker. Passengers repeatedly reopened judgments of competence, while ratings and complaint records extended these encounters beyond individual trips. Drivers’ growing confidence could coexist with reduced or ended participation as they navigated care, health, and earnings pressures. The study develops conditional occupational membership to show why access, recognition, and sustainable participation are distinct dimensions of inclusion.

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Drawing on 21 interviews, this study shows how women ride-hailing drivers learn platform rules, share practical knowledge, and press for safer and fairer working conditions. Their accounts also reveal tensions in this reliance, as arrangements perceived as protective and metrics rewarding continuous availability could limit access to profitable work. The concept of algorithmic collaboration links everyday adaptation to demands for better governance, showing how worker agency develops within dependence on the platform.

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Interviews with 21 women ride-hailing drivers in China reveal how protection can be experienced as both reassuring and restrictive. Drivers described passenger scrutiny that carried consequences through ratings and complaints, alongside safety arrangements they associated with fewer opportunities for profitable trips. The concept of algorithmic benevolent sexism captures this tension between protection and opportunity, extending research on sexism to workers’ experiences of opaque platform governance.

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Among informal workers in China, gender wage inequality is greatest at the bottom of the earnings distribution. Accounting for selection into informal employment reveals larger gaps across most of the distribution, and differences in wage returns to observed characteristics account for most of the disparity. Gaps are also larger among married workers and parents. The study shifts attention from access to informal paid work to the wage structures and family circumstances associated with unequal rewards within it.

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Matched spousal data from China show that wives earn less when only husbands hold protected jobs than when both partners do. Couples with this arrangement also have the widest husband–wife wage gaps among the arrangements compared. Young children are associated with wives’ non-employment, highlighting an additional constraint on paid work. By treating employment protection as a couple-level arrangement, the study connects labor-market segmentation to the distribution of earnings and opportunities within households.

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Drawing on Chinese labor-force surveys from 2014 to 2018, this study finds a wider gender wage gap in gig work in more digitally developed settings. The gap is especially pronounced among older and married workers, and wage decomposition attributes most of it to differences in returns to observed characteristics. These findings challenge the expectation that digital expansion will automatically close pay gaps, directing attention to who gains from changing labor-market opportunities.

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Using Chinese labor-force survey data, this study examines how earnings, flexibility, gender, and employment conditions relate to participation in gig work. Machine learning and regression identify wages and work flexibility as leading predictors, while women are less likely than men to participate. The findings place the economic attractions of gig work alongside unequal participation, bringing worker motivations and structural constraints into a common account of entry into flexible employment.

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