Gender differences in educational attainment: the case of doctoral degrees in Norway

Despite strong trends in most Western countries towards gender equality in educational attainments, men are still considerably more likely to obtain doctoral degrees. Using data comprising nearly all students graduating from Norwegian universities during 1981–1996, separate event history analyses are carried out of recruitment to and completion of doctoral studies. Multilevel models are used to take both differences among individuals and among educational fields into account. With regard to recruitment, a moderate gender difference is partly accounted for by men’s higher grades. Children have no impact for either gender. The remaining gender difference could be due to discrimination, but the fact that this difference is not larger in predominantly male fields is an argument against this. There is no overall gender difference in completion probabilities. Men, however, seem more likely to drop out of their studies in applied fields, probably due to attractive opportunities in the non‐academic labour market. Acknowledgements The author is grateful to Håvard Helland, Marianne Nordli Hansen and Roy A. Nielsen for valuable comments, and to Marianne Dæhlen for assistance in preparing the data for analysis. Errors and omissions remain the responsibility of the author. Notes * Department of Sociology and Human Geography, University of Oslo, P.O. Box 1096, Blindern, N‐0317 Oslo, Norway. Email: arne.mastekaasa@sosiologi.uio.no Additional informationNotes on contributorsArne MastekaasaFootnote* * Department of Sociology and Human Geography, University of Oslo, P.O. Box 1096, Blindern, N‐0317 Oslo, Norway. Email: arne.mastekaasa@sosiologi.uio.no