{"title":"The legacy of names. Persistence in social status in Sweden 1865–2015","authors":"Elien Dalman","doi":"10.1016/j.rssm.2025.101033","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.rssm.2025.101033","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study explores how social origin, reflected by occupation and family name from both parents, has been passed down over the past 150 years in Sweden. It finds that intergenerational rank-rank associations in occupational status – a typical measure of social mobility – have remained surprisingly constant at levels around 0.27 – as in the US (<span><span>Song et al., 2020</span></span>). However, intergenerational correlations are substantially higher among those with surnames reflecting high historical prestige. Surname type reflects a heritable social status dimension at the group level (such as ethnicity), which persists strongly across generations. By comparing occupational and surname-based social status, this study offers new insights into the persistent nature of social inequality and the factors that influence it over time. It offers a new perspective on the transition from “ascribed” (surname) to “achieved” (occupational) status as Sweden industrialized, modernized, and became a welfare state.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47384,"journal":{"name":"Research in Social Stratification and Mobility","volume":"97 ","pages":"Article 101033"},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2025-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143628039","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Social inequalities in children’s cognitive and socioemotional development: The role of home learning environments and early childhood education","authors":"Ilaria Pietropoli , Pablo Gracia","doi":"10.1016/j.rssm.2025.101034","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.rssm.2025.101034","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study uses high-quality longitudinal data from the <em>Growing Up in Ireland</em> study to examine the interplay between home learning environment (HLE) and early childhood education (ECE) in explaining children’s skills development from 9 months to 5 years old across parental socioeconomic status (SES). Random-effects linear regression models show that: (1) supportive HLE improves children’s cognitive and socioemotional skills and ECE quality critically fosters early socioemotional skills; (2) SES is associated with higher early cognitive and socioemotional outcomes, while responsive and consistent parenting behaviours among low-SES parents is particularly critical to improve their children’s socioemotional well-being; (3) high-quality ECE attendance compensates for children’s behavioural problems in less responsive parenting environments, especially among low-SES families, whereas home literacy stimulation is necessary condition for high-quality ECE attendance to benefit children’s early cognitive skills. Overall, HLE and ECE mutually interact in explaining differences in children’s early skills development across SES groups.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47384,"journal":{"name":"Research in Social Stratification and Mobility","volume":"97 ","pages":"Article 101034"},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2025-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143609963","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Gender blindness in the research on the economic value of education: Theoretical and methodological causes and consequences","authors":"Hadas Mandel, Assaf Rotman","doi":"10.1016/j.rssm.2025.101049","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.rssm.2025.101049","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>A thorough ‘sociological reading’ in one of the most important, high-profile, and extensive literatures, the research on the economic value of education, reveals its failed to acknowledge women’s lower education premiums, as well as the rise in gender inequality in education premiums over-time. This neglect is surprising because the economic value of education is a hot topic that has attracted major scholarly attention in recent decades due to its relation to the expansion of income inequality in postindustrial economies. It also has significant implications for understanding the mechanisms underpinning gender inequality in modern labor markets that rely on workers’ education and skills. Our analysis 1) sheds light on this omission, 2) identifies its theoretical and methodological sources, 3) reveals its consequences by presenting comparative evidence on trends in gender inequality in education premium (based on US-CPS data from the years 1980–2023), and 4) offers a gender-sensitive approach for future studies. The data and literature analyses have significant empirical and theoretical implications. Empirically, they highlight the widening gender gap in educational premiums. Theoretically, the findings contribute to the sociology of knowledge by demonstrating how the theoretical framework, and consequently the research questions and methodology, shape our empirical knowledge.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47384,"journal":{"name":"Research in Social Stratification and Mobility","volume":"97 ","pages":"Article 101049"},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2025-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143917544","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The inequality trade-off? Employment inequalities across and within couples in the rise of dual earning","authors":"Guillaume Paugam","doi":"10.1016/j.rssm.2025.101035","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.rssm.2025.101035","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper links the rise of dual earning in Europe with two associated phenomena, hitherto mostly studied separately: household employment polarisation, and part-time employment. The former is about inequality across heterosexual working-age couples, and their tendency to polarise between dual earning and dual workless. The latter shows that inequality persists within dual-earning couples, with women more likely than men to be in part-time work. The paper studies 11 European countries since 1983. It first documents long-run trends in dual earning, employment polarisation and part-time work. It then formally links the latter two notions, by developing a novel shift-share equation to explain the rise of dual-earning in terms of changes in levels of part-time and full-time work and changes in how equally or unequally they are distributed across couples. It shows that part-time employment increased the levels of employment without really changing the way employment is distributed across couples. On the other hand, full-time employment has become much more unequally distributed across couples over time, particularly following the 2008 crisis, a period during which the rise of female full-time work accelerated and male full-time work declined. The paper also identifies patterns of commonalities and differences across European countries.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47384,"journal":{"name":"Research in Social Stratification and Mobility","volume":"97 ","pages":"Article 101035"},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2025-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143628040","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Divergent trajectories and unequal returns: A temporal approach to Black-White wealth inequality in the United States","authors":"Chunhui Ren","doi":"10.1016/j.rssm.2025.101046","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.rssm.2025.101046","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Whereas the dynamic nature of racial wealth inequality in the United States has been long recognized, prior research has paid inadequate attention to the temporal process whereby inequality develops and evolves. In the present study, we propose a three-stage conceptual framework, wherein divergent wealth trajectories between African Americans and Whites are predetermined in social origins (stage one), cultivated while growing up (stage two), and materialize over time (stage three). Based on the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID), we put this conceptualization to an empirical test, producing two major findings: (1) The sources of Black-White wealth inequality can be fully explained after account for these three temporal stages of wealth determinants; (2) African Americans are found to receive diminished returns to a range of wealth-enhancing attributes, particularly early ones that are shaped prior to the formation of independent households. Academic and policy implications are also discussed.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47384,"journal":{"name":"Research in Social Stratification and Mobility","volume":"97 ","pages":"Article 101046"},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2025-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143852267","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Is the gender-gap reversal a feedback loop? Demographic factors influencing gender-gap inequalities in tertiary education in European countries","authors":"Tomáš Katrňák , Pia N. Blossfeld , Tomáš Doseděl","doi":"10.1016/j.rssm.2025.101040","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.rssm.2025.101040","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The educational structures of European populations have changed significantly over the last 20 years. The average proportion of young people (aged 25–34) in European countries who had attained tertiary education increased from 25 % in 2000 to 41 % in 2020. This educational expansion has been accompanied by a change of the gender ratio in favor of women and the growth of a gender-gap reversal (GGR). We deal with demographic factors that influence the trends in GGR in tertiary education. We use the first round of Generations and Gender Surveys (GGS-I) data collected under the Generations and Gender Programme (GGP) in 12 European countries. We analyze the effects of parental educational hypogamy (marriage where the wife’s education level is higher than the husband’s), parental tertiary homogamy (marriage where the wife’s tertiary level is the same as the husband’s), parental divorce, and non-intact origin family. The empirical results show that three of these factors have positive effects on women’s tertiary education attainment and increase the GGR. We argue that the increasing level of GGR then reinforces the prevalence of these factors in the tertiary educated population at the macro level by which the GGR is boosted again over time. Based on this cyclic argument we suggest interpreting the GGR in tertiary education as a positive feedback loop.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47384,"journal":{"name":"Research in Social Stratification and Mobility","volume":"97 ","pages":"Article 101040"},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2025-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143879073","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The impact of tracking in a stratified education system on idealistic educational aspirations in migrant and native families","authors":"Andrés Gomensoro , Marieke Heers , Chantal Kamm , Sandra Hupka-Brunner","doi":"10.1016/j.rssm.2025.101022","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.rssm.2025.101022","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>In this study, we analyse the extent to which educational tracking impacts idealistic educational aspirations in Switzerland and how different second generation groups by countries of origin differ from Swiss natives in this respect. In fact, research has repeatedly confirmed that students with a migration background aspire more for general education, specifically for university degrees. However, little is known within strong tracking educational systems, such as Switzerland. Using AES2016-data, we find that when parental educational aspirations are controlled for and when we account for constraints due to tracking, children of immigrants have higher idealistic educational aspirations than their native counterparts. This points towards some immigrant optimism. Track attendance has a different impact on the aspirations of different groups but does not inhibit high aspirations even when these seem unattainable.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47384,"journal":{"name":"Research in Social Stratification and Mobility","volume":"97 ","pages":"Article 101022"},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2025-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143464115","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The socio-organisational embeddedness of work-life mobility","authors":"Per Block , Jan O. Jonsson","doi":"10.1016/j.rssm.2025.101032","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.rssm.2025.101032","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>There has recently been renewed interest in occupational mobility over the life-course. We argue that such studies should place greater emphasis on organisational and social embeddings of occupations as key drivers of mobility. Occupations are interconnected by their organisational, regional, and industrial contexts, which create mobility opportunities. These contexts also foster social relations that underpin classic mobility predictors such as social capital, cultural capital, and aspiration, all of which guide occupational choices. Building on the idea that social and organisational relations between occupations shape the overall structure of social mobility, we devise a structural model that focuses not on variables, but on emergent mobility patterns. We conceptualise the mobility table as a network, fitting a loglinear model including concentration, reciprocity, and clustering parameters. This model is applied to analyse intra-generational mobility between 59 micro-classes in the UK during the first decade of this century, using data from the British Household Panel Survey. We find that emergent patterns are strong predictors of mobility. When comparing our model to a conventional social-class based one, we find that social-class parameters decrease by 88 % after the inclusion of network patterns. We conclude that the socio-organisational embeddedness of occupations is an overlooked structuring force behind work-life mobility.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47384,"journal":{"name":"Research in Social Stratification and Mobility","volume":"97 ","pages":"Article 101032"},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2025-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143552087","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Consequences of expanded vocationally oriented programs for gender segregation and inequality: The case of Japanese higher education","authors":"Fumiya Uchikoshi , Kohei Toyonaga , Erika Teramoto","doi":"10.1016/j.rssm.2025.101024","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.rssm.2025.101024","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>In this paper, we integrate two bodies of literature on higher education—horizontal stratification and gender segregation—to generate new insights into the consequences of the increase in vocationally oriented programs for gender segregation and inequality. We specifically examine the case of Japan, where college expansion and women’s increasing enrollment in four-year universities have been driven by the proliferation of nonselective private sectors. Two sets of analyses using administrative and survey data reveal the following findings. First, the relative increase in female enrollments in private institutions is driven by the growth of vocationally oriented programs, which typically offer publicly certified licenses for female-dominant occupations. If there was no such increase, then gender segregation in terms of fields of study would have decreased more than observed. Second, we find that those from low socioeconomic background are more likely to be enrolled in vocational fields such as nursing, education and home economics. These results suggest that women’s increased college attendance in Japan contributes to the growth of <em>double gender segregation</em> in terms of fields of study and institutional selectivity by incorporating less privileged women into these sectors.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47384,"journal":{"name":"Research in Social Stratification and Mobility","volume":"97 ","pages":"Article 101024"},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2025-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143609964","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"When advantages disappear: Long-term trends in gender and social origin inequalities and the rise of horizontal stratification in higher education in South Korea","authors":"Seongsoo Choi , Subin Lee","doi":"10.1016/j.rssm.2025.101036","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.rssm.2025.101036","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Recent research on educational stratification has shifted focus from vertical to horizontal inequalities and the intersectionality of gender and social origin. Yet, little empirical research has examined how these multidimensional inequalities emerge and evolve over time. We argue that as traditional advantages by gender and SES decline, new horizontal inequalities may arise, maintaining advantage for privileged groups. Using nine nationally representative survey samples, we analyze South Korea, where higher education expanded rapidly in the late 20th century, examining cohort trends in gender and SES gaps across both vertical (college completion) and horizontal (institutional selectivity and STEM choice) dimensions. Our findings show that while the male advantage disappeared and SES disparities in college access narrowed, a new gap emerged, favoring high-SES males in STEM fields at selective universities. We also find suggestive evidence that rising labor market demand for STEM skills may be a factor explaining recent differences in major choice between high-SES men and women. This study reveals a new pathway of educational stratification shaped interactively by gender and SES.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47384,"journal":{"name":"Research in Social Stratification and Mobility","volume":"97 ","pages":"Article 101036"},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2025-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143642119","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}