elButlletí

A bimonthly publication of AQU Catalunya

59

March 2012

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The study entitled Gènere i inserció laboral del col·lectiu universitari (Gender and the labour market outcomes of the university population in Catalonia) (AQU Catalunya, 2010), which analysed differences in the labour market outcomes of graduates in Catalonia three years after graduation, showed that the influence of the degree taken was greater than gender in the differences between male and female graduates, and that differences, when they occurred, were not systematically in favour of male graduates. In actual fact, the overall differences between males and females balanced each other out or were slightly reduced when comparing between males and females taking the same degree.

Is this surprising or to be expected? Studies on graduate labour market outcomes (also known as graduate destinations, careers outcomes, employment outcomes, etc.) have shown that equal pay does not exist in all professions, that some sectors are more stable than others and that certain degrees lead to a very specific type of job (Education, Nursing, Computer Science) whereas others are much more open-ended (Humanities). Statistics show that the distribution of males and females according to degrees is not random, with the proportion being similar for both. It is therefore impossible to determine whether differences between males and females are due to differences between how a degree is received in the labour market or because of reasons to do with gender discrimination, except when a comparison is made between males and females who have taken the same degree.

Moreover, as three years after graduation still implies the "start of their entry into the world of work", it is highly probable that there was not enough time for realities such as the glass ceiling, the concrete ceiling, wage discrimination, vertical segregation and double presence, amongst other things, to have an influence on the transition of female graduates to the labour market.

The study presented here, Gènere i inserció laboral. Dones i homes deu anys després de graduar-se, iguals o diferents? (Gender and graduate labour market outcomes), which was made possible through the support of the Institut Català de les Dones, analyses the job situation of a sample of the graduate population ten years after graduation. A sample of six sub-areas (subjects) in five disciplines were taken, given that the bibliography shows that the subject (area of study) taken at university has an important influence on the type and quality of employment gained on entering the labour market. Degree courses with a sufficient number of graduates and where the proportion of males and females was similar were chosen in each discipline in order to allow for statistical testing according to gender. Table 1 shows the data for the population and survey sample.

Table 1. Population and survey sample

	Population	Sample	Females	Males	% females	% males
History	272	192	104	88	54.17%	45.83%
Economics and Business Administration	610	328	170	158	51.83%	48.17%
Chemistry	168	108	71	37	65.74%	34.26%
Medicine	249	134	101	33	75.37%	24.63%
Chemical Engineering	133	92	41	51	44.57%	55.43%
Agric. Engineering	346	247	115	132	46.56%	53.44%
Total	1.778	1.101	602	499	54.68%	45.32%

Table 2 summarises the statistical testing of more than twenty indicators analysed in the descriptive part of the study. In the majority of indicators analysed there are no statistically significant differences between males and females. To sum up, gender has no direct effect on the level of career success of graduates ten years after graduation. Several of the indicators however show a discernible trend that is systematically favourable to males, such as the percentage that occupy positions of responsibility and those that have received promotion. The averages for male graduates are also higher for actual time spent on the job and availability. Consideration should be given to what these data reveal, as for example international experience is increasingly becoming a requirement for promotion to senior management and, with females being less able to accept mobility, they may have more limited options for success in the future.

Table 2. Summary of the statistical testing between males and females for the indicators of job success

Indicators with no differences between males and females
Employment rate Unemployment rate Stability rate Short-term work contract rate Part-time/full-time employment rate Inactivity rate due to family reasons Public-private sector distribution Match rate (percentage whose job duties are on a level with their university studies) Percentage in positions of direction and management Percentage with responsibility (over others) in the workplace Percentage who have been promoted General job satisfaction (with the exception of Medicine, where male graduates are more satisfied) Satisfaction with job content (with the exception of Economics and Business Administration, where females are more satisfied) Satisfaction with job prospects Satisfaction with conciliation measures (conciliation of work and family life) Occupational quality index
Indicators with differences between males and females
Part-time work: for males the reason is the lack of alternatives (75%), whereas for females there are family reasons (69%). This data would confirm the trend that the bread-winner model of household organisation continues to prevail Earnings: males earned significantly more than females in three out of the six subjects. As in the previous study carried out by AQU Catalunya, there is evidence in this present study that calls into question the reliability of this indicator, with the effect of a possible over-estimation by males of their earnings, whereas females under-estimated them Time spent on the job: longer hours spent working among males than among females in four out of six subjects Availability: higher level of availability among males than among females to dedicate themselves more to their work, take on a key role in company decision-making, travel frequently and change residence
Indicators with no significant differences between males and females, but with a trend that is more favourable for males
Part-time employment rate (the rates for females were higher than for males) Management responsibilities (with a higher percentage among males, except for History) Responsibility over others (except for History) Occupational quality index

The data on the labour market outcomes of the group surveyed ten years after graduation are positive, in terms of employment (93% in employment, 91% full-time), job stability (73% with a fixed-term contract), education-job match (85% have graduate-level job responsibilities) and earnings (71% of those in full-time employment earn over 24,000 euros a year), although there are considerable differences between degrees (Medicine on the more positive side and History on the negative). In addition, 60% of those surveyed had received promotion after having graduated, a fact that shows an upwards occupational mobility.

As in the 2008 survey (on the graduate population three after completing their studies), the degree course taken has more influence on the indicators for career success than gender. This means that the differences within either the female group or male group according to the degree taken was greater than between males and females in the same degree taken (employment, unemployment, stability, short-term contract, public or private sector employment, match rate, satisfaction, etc.). However, it is not possible to conclude that the whole cohort of a given course of study is more successful professionally speaking than another. While the degree course taken does have an influence on the probabilities of success, both surveys (2008 and 2011) have confirmed that there is a percentage of graduates in degree courses that have less favourable outcomes on average who are more successful than graduates in degrees that apparently have better employment prospects, i.e. the degree course taken has an influence, although it does not determine job quality.

Four out of ten people believe there is a conflict in the distribution of time between work, family and personal life. There are no significant differences according to gender, although females tend to believe there is more conflict. There are also no gender differences regarding the acceptance of job flexibility measures, where applicable. The fact that the group of males expressed this point of view shows there is a need for a rethink of the traditional model in which women are assigned a domestic and reproductive role and where conciliation is a “woman's affair”. This allows for a new point of view based on co-responsibility towards domestic and reproductive responsibilities, with the balanced involvement of both genders. The existence of flexibility measures that facilitate conciliation of people's work, family and personal lives leads to a highly significant reduction in the perception of conflict.

What are the key contextual elements for understanding the results of this survey?

The inactivity rate due to family reasons among those surveyed was 1% for females and 0% for males. There is no variation in the results with respect to the survey carried out three years after graduation. An initial conclusion that helps to set these data in context is that the labour market outcomes of this group was not influenced by the gender-specific division of labour (work in the family vs. paid work). The workplace behaviour of the group of females with higher studies is different to that of females with lower levels of education (see table 3). The inactivity rate for females aged between 25 and 54 with lower levels of education is 21% and an employment rate of 63%, whereas the females surveyed had an inactivity rate of 2.5% and an employment rate of 93%. Education narrows the differences in professional achievement between males and females. From this it can be deduced that the differences between males and females in the general population cannot be extrapolated to those between male and female university graduates. The average age was 35, and 76% were living as a couple, although only 44% of the people surveyed had children; it is thus very unlikely that double presence (the need to respond simultaneously to the demands of paid and domestic-family work) has an impact on achievement or success at work. It may therefore be that achieving professional equity is detrimental to starting a family; if so, the survey would confirm that there continues to be little conciliation between paid work and domestic-family work. As Alva Myrdal (1968) pointed out, “it wasn't so much the right of married women to work that needed protecting, but the working woman’s right to marry and have children.”

Table 3. Employment rate, unemployment rate and inactivity rate according to gender. Comparison with data for the active population

	Sub-area	N	Employment	Unemployment	Inactivity
Females	History	104	86.54%	10.58%	2.88%
	Economics and Business Administration	170	93.53%	4.12%	2.35%
	Chemistry	71	94.37%	2.82%	2.82%
	Medicine	101	99.01%	0	0.99%
	Chemical Engineering	41	90.24%	2.44%	7.32%
	Agricultural Engineering	115	92.17%	6.09%	1.74%
	Total	602	92.90%	4.70%	2.50%
	Active Population Survey (EPA) 1st quarter 2011, aged between 25-54, Catalonia	10,555	62.70%	16.50%	20.80%
Males	History	88	81.82%	14.77%	3.41%
	Economics and Business Administration	158	96.84%	2.53%	0.63%
	Chemistry	37	94.59%	5.41%	0.00%
	Medicine	33	100.00%	0.00%	0.00%
	Chemical Engineering	51	96.08%	3.92%	0.00%
	Agricultural Engineering	132	95.45%	3.79%	0.76%
	Total	499	93.8%	5.20%	1.00%
	Active Population Survey (EPA) 1st quarter 2011, aged between 25-54, Catalonia	10,855	74.7%	17.7%	7.6%

There is a second multivariate part to the survey, in which a career (professional) success index is generated using a categorical principal components analysis that enables different hypotheses to be tested and for producing an explanatory model for career success (using multiple regression).

The exercise carried out in the second part of the study confirms the conclusions from the first part, together with several other conclusions as follows:

Career success refers to the series of professional (from an objective point of view) and personal achievements (from a subjective point of view) that a person has accumulated as a result of his/her professional experience. Professional achievements include the type of contract, promotion, managerial responsibilities, the level of responsibility and salary. Personal achievements include satisfaction with job content and job satisfaction in general.

• Gender does not appear as a predictor of career success. There is no direct effect of gender on the level of career success of university graduates ten years after graduation.
• Only degrees in History (negatively) and Economics and Business Administration (positively) contribute to the differences in career success (for both males and females).
• Organisational characteristics appear to be key factors in explaining career success. The study confirms the hypothesis defended by organisational theories that career success is influenced by the series of opportunities offered by an enterprise for the development of the professional skills of staff.
• Availability for professional development constitutes a second group of predictive variables. There is a tendency, postulated from the point of view of personal behaviour, for graduates (irrespective of gender) who are willing to take on new responsibilities and make best use of development opportunities offered by the enterprise to be more successful professionally speaking.
• Family situation and career success. There is insufficient evidence to conclude that having children implies any differences in career success. There is an absence of any differences for both males and females.
• Socio-economic background and career success. There is no clear confirmation of the hypothesis, posed by the theories of social reproduction, that graduates of a low socio-economic origin are less successful professionally speaking.
• Work-family conflict and career success. The misallocation of time between family and work, as a trend, negatively affects the position of career success.
• The modelling of career success shows a broad margin of “inexplicability”, which, on the one hand, shows how the baseline theoretical frameworks are still "raw" and, on the other, the difficulty, or perhaps the impossibility, of modelling the uncertainty of personal decision-making.

In conclusion, the results of this study shed light on certain factors (organisational and personal) that may alter what could be presumed as being a direct relationship between degree, gender and career success.