Gender-Related Trends in Educational Expectations

佛罗里达州立大学约翰·雷诺兹在过去的30年里，围绕男性，特别是女性的工作和家庭角色的性别规范发生了很大的变化。全职工作的女性比以往任何时候都多，即使在最传统的家庭中，有两个带着年幼孩子的亲生父母，女性也更有可能工作而不是拿工资。在许多与工作相关的方面，女性仍然落后于男性，包括收入中位数较低，晋升机会较小，以及家务的平均份额较高。然而，在教育领域，女性在许多层面上都超过了男性。今天的女孩比男孩更有可能计划上大学，高中毕业，上大学，并完成大学学位。这些趋势表明，近几十年来，获得教育的基本过程发生了变化。这项研究考察了1972至1997年间女孩和男孩对上大学的期望值的变化，试图找出推动女性在高等教育中进步的最重要的力量。大学期望值是学生对未来完成大学学位的几率的主观评估，已被证明是家庭背景、学校表现和最终教育成就之间的重要认知纽带。此外，自20世纪70年代以来，高中女生对大学的期望值比男生上升得更快，如今的女生更有可能完成大学学位，或计划进入研究生或专业学校。这项拟议的研究假设，女孩上大学的期望值上升得更快是因为父母的成就、家庭结构和当地就业机会的变化，以及性别的影响。这些数据来自对大学前年龄青年的四次全国纵向调查：1972年全国纵向调查、1980年高中及以后调查、1988年全国教育纵向研究和1997年全国青年纵向调查。每项调查的Probit模型都估计了父母的成就、家庭结构和当地工作机会对女孩和男孩期望完成大学学位的概率的影响。如果对女孩的期望有更积极影响的因素(例如，母亲的教育程度)随着时间的推移变得更加积极，或者如果随着时间的推移，这些特征对女孩的影响变得比对男孩更积极(例如，工作机会)，父母、家庭和当地就业市场的特征可能有助于解释大学期望中与性别有关的趋势。这些发现将表明性别规范的变化如何影响社会中的一个主要机构--高等教育，它们将为我们对教育成就过程中的性别差异的理解提供亟需的更新。这项研究还将有助于目前的辩论，即相对于他们的才华，女孩或男孩更有可能成绩不佳，这一辩论与中学和高等教育层面的教育政策有关。

SES-0137050John ReynoldsFlorida State UniversityThe past thirty years have witnessed considerable change in the gender norms surrounding men's and especially women's work and family roles. More women work full-time than ever before, and even in the most traditional families, two biological parents with young children, women are more likely than not to work for pay. On many work-related dimensions women still lag behind men, including lower median earnings, slimmer chances of being promoted, and a higher average share of household duties. In the area of education, however, women have surpassed men at many levels. Girls today are more likely than boys to plan to attend college, to graduate from high school, to attend college, and to complete a college degree. These trends suggest that the basic processes underlying educational attainment have shifted within recent decades. This research examines changes in girls' and boys' college expectations from 1972 to 1997 in an attempt to identify the most important forces behind women's advances in higher education. College expectations are students' subjective assessments of the odds of completing a college degree in the future, and they have been shown to be an important cognitive link between family background, school performance, and eventual educational achievements. In addition, college expectations among high school girls have risen faster than boys since the 1970s, and girls today are significantly more likely to expect to complete a college degree or plan to attend graduate or professional school. The proposed research hypothesizes the faster rise in college expectations among girls is due to changes in, and gender-specific effects of, parents' achievements, family structure, and local job opportunities. The data come from four national longitudinal surveys of pre-college age youth: the 1972 National Longitudinal Survey, the 1980 High School and Beyond Survey, the 1988 National Education Longitudinal Study, and the 1997 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. Probit models for each survey estimate the effects of parents' achievements, family structure, and local job opportunities on the probability that girls and boys expect to complete a college degree. Characteristics of parents, families, and local job markets may help explain the gender-related trends in college expectations if the factors that have a more positive effect on girls' expectations become more positive over time (e.g., mothers' educational attainments), or if the effects of these characteristics become more positive for girls over time than for boys (e.g., job opportunities). The findings will suggest how changes in gender norms are impacting a major institution in society, higher education, and they will provide a much-needed update to our understanding of gender differences in the process of educational attainment. The study will also contribute to the current debate over whether girls or boys are more likely to underachieve relative to their talents, a debate that has relevance for educational policy at the secondary and post-secondary levels.