Most people know that well-educated parents tend to have educated kids as well, but what happens when two parents have different types of education?
In a unique global study, a gender-sensitive approach was taken to understand intergenerational educational mobility.
Let's find out more!
It's not that simple
Surprisingly, education expansion hasn't necessarily increased educational opportunities for kids from diverse parental education backgrounds.
The research highlights the growing importance of a mother's educational status in shaping their kids' educational mobility, particularly in regions like Africa, Asia, the Pacific, and also Europe.
The specialists analyzed a vast global dataset of 1.79 million people born between 1955 and 1990 from different societies, representing about 89% of the whole world's population.
As gender equality rises, the link between a mother's educational status and her kids' educational mobility strengthens when mothers are paired with not so educated fathers.
Conversely, in less gender-equal contexts with more mothers matched with highly educated fathers, the mother-daughter association weakens.
Why is it important?
This study emphasizes the need for a gender-sensitive approach to understand social mobility accurately.
The rising importance of mothers' education challenges the traditional patriarchal measurement of intergenerational mobility and calls for more inclusive strategies globally.
As single-parent families, especially those led by single mothers, increase worldwide, the influence of mothers in shaping kids' social mobility may further grow.
