Gender segregation in education and employment. The role of educational systems in Bulgaria and Switzerland

Previous comparative research has uncovered considerable cross country differences in horizontal gender segregation, i.e. the extent to which men and women enrol in different educational programmes and work in different occupations. However, we still lack sufficient research on how educational systems influences gender segregation and gendered school-to-work transitions. The research programme 'Educational systems and gendered school-to-work transitions' (2011-2017) has addressed this research gap. The article presents the summary findings from two comparative studies of the programme which investigated the influence of the educational systems on gender segregation in Bulgaria and Switzerland. The first study analyses how gender-typed educational pathways are influenced by the institutional permeability between vocational education at the secondary level and the university. The second study investigates the role of vocational education and linkage strength between education and occupation in the transmission of gender segregation from education into the labour market. Both analyses were conducted using Swiss TREE data and a recent Bulgarian school leaver survey. One the one hand the empirical results show that the institutional permeability of the Bulgarian education system allows graduates from vocational education and training to de-gender their educational career if they continue to higher education. On the other hand we find evidence that the pronounced educational gender segregation is transferred more strongly into the labour market in Switzerland due to the tighter linkages between education and employment compared to Bulgaria.