A Comparison of Men's and Women's Intergenerational Mobility in the United States

A nationally representative sample provides the basis for a comparison of married men's and married women's intergenerational mobility in the United States; men's occupational mobility is compared with women's marriage mobility. Women are found to have greater mobility through marriage, both upward and downward, than men do through occupations, and women more readily cross the boundaries among the maor status groupings of white-collar, blue-collar and farm. Men, on the other hand, are more likely to inherit their fathers' statuses and there is greater association between the statuses of fathers and sons than between the statuses of fathers and daughters. An analysis for historical trends in the data indicates little evidence for either increasing fluidity or rigidity in the mobility system of either sex.