Background
Over the past fifty years, we've seen a remarkable shift in education: young women now earn more degrees and higher credentials than young men across most developed countries, including Norway and the United States. This educational advantage for women reached its peak around the year 2000, after which changes have slowed down. Yet despite women's educational success, significant gaps remain in the labor market—women still face disparities in employment rates, income, and career advancement opportunities compared to men. This raises an important question: now that young women have more education, do we see significant consequences for labor market inequalities? And if not, why arenʼt labor market inequalities between men and women changing?
Purpose
The GENDERSKILLS project investigates how the different educational paths chosen by men and women shape their career opportunities. We focus on four key factors that connect education to careers: how well academic credentials translate into job-relevant skills; how directly specific degrees lead to specific jobs; how easily skills from different fields can transfer across occupations; and how professional licenses and certifications affect career development in male-dominated versus female-dominated professions. These factors represent different forms of bargaining power that people gain through their education, with consequences for employment patterns, earnings, and career advancement.
Approach
Our research draws on comprehensive data from Norway and the United States, including population registers, employment records, and large-scale surveys. GENDERSKILLS is a collaborative effort between sociologists and labor economists from the Institute for Social Research, the Research Foundation Fafo and Oslo Metropolitan University in Norway, and Wellesley College in the US.
