Women from better-off families are less likely to find secure employment if they have a degree from a non-elite university than if they have no degree, new research says.

And while degrees can help women from less affluent backgrounds, they don’t allow them to catch up with their better-off counterparts in their careers, a British Sociological Association conference in Belfast heard today [Wednesday, 12 September 2018].

Maria Holcekova analysed survey data on 4,281 women in England from different socio-economic backgrounds to find out the effects of their educational qualifications on their careers when they were 25 years old.

Ms Holcekova, who carried out the research at the University of Essex for her PhD, found that for women from the highest socio-economic group, 14% of the total, going to a non-elite university hurt their chances of a secure job.

Around 30% of women graduates from this group went to a Russell-Group university – 24 institutions including Oxford and Cambridge. When they were age 25 or 26, 16% were doing shift work, 2% were on a zero-hour contract and 14% were underemployed, defined as working in jobs where their degrees were not needed.   

Of the 70% graduates from this group who went to a non-elite university, 28% were doing shift work, 3% were on a zero-hour contract and 17% were underemployed.

Of those from this group without a degree (44% of the total) 19% were doing shift work, 2% were on a zero-hour contract and 30% were underemployed.

“Graduating from non Russell-Group university increases the probability of insecure employment, such as shift work or zero-hours contracts, compared to those without a degree,” said Ms Holcekova.

“It is perhaps due to the high expectations of this group, given their privileged socio-economic backgrounds, that high achievement tends to improve but low achievement tends to worsen certain labour market outcomes.

“Higher educational qualifications and attainment seems like a pre-requisite rather than an advantage for this cluster of young women, in gaining secure positions within the labour market at age 25 or 26.”

Ms Holcekova also found that while undertaking further education or getting a degree from any university helped women from the poorest background – 23% of the sample – they were still less successful than their wealthier peers at finding secure employment.

She found that at age 25 or 26, 31% were doing shift work, 7% were on a zero-hour contract and 19% were underemployed.

“My analysis shows that engagement in higher education does indeed seem to benefit certain groups of young people in certain respects, however, this is by no means universal across different socio-economic groups,” said Ms Holcekova.

“Lower socio-economic groups have worse chances of progression into the ‘right’ forms of higher education in the first place and, even if they succeed, education is not the golden route to meritocracy so often praised by the government. 

“For them, education is no longer a secure way to protect oneself from precarious position within the labour market. The implications thus call current government policy initiatives into question with regard to their effectiveness in tackling youth unemployment and insecurity through qualification inflation.”

The research is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council.

For more information, please contact:

Tony Trueman
British Sociological Association
Tel: 07964 023392
tony.trueman@britsoc.org.uk

Notes 
1. Ms Holcekova used data from the Next Steps study (formerly known as the Longitudinal Study of Young People in England). This survey followed a nationally representative cohort of young people born between 1 September 1989 and 31 August 1990 living in England at the time of first interview in 2004. Participants were interviewed yearly from 2004 for seven years and then once more in 2016, when they were 25 or 26.

2. The highest socio-economic group in the sample formed 14% of the total, and two-thirds of the women in it had parents working in higher management and professional jobs. The % results for the group were:

A woman can be in more than one category.

For graduates of any university in the lowest socio-economic group:

3. The Russell Group comprises the universities of Birmingham, Bristol, Cambridge, Cardiff, Durham, Edinburgh, Exeter, Glasgow, Imperial College, King’s College, Leeds, Liverpool, London School of Economics, Manchester, Newcastle, Nottingham, Oxford, Queen Mary, Queen’s University Belfast, Sheffield, Southampton, University College London, Warwick and York.

4. The British Sociological Association’s Work, Employment and Society conference takes place from 12-14 September 2018 at the Europa Hotel, Belfast.

5. The British Sociological Association’s charitable aim is to promote sociology. The BSA is a Company Limited by Guarantee. Registered in England and Wales. Company Number: 3890729. Registered Charity Number 1080235   www.britsoc.co.uk