From baker to banker; The influence of parents social origin on educational attainment of their children from an intersectional lens.

Abstract

The goal of this study was to look at the influence of social origin of parents on the educational attainment of their children. Furthermore, this study included an intersectional approach taking into account the effects of gender and ethnicity. Overall three hypotheses were drawn out. The first hypothesis expected an influence of parents’ social origin on the educational attainment of their children. It was expected that the social background of parents influences the way parents are able to navigate their children in the Dutch educational system. Secondly, two contracting hypotheses were drawn out. On the one hand, according to the Double disadvantage Hypothesis and parents' traditional gender attitudes it was expected to see a negative effect of the intersectional identities of being both women and having a non-western migration background on the relationship between social origin and educational attainment. On the other hand the Subordinate Male Target Hypothesis and the reverse gender gap imply that boys with a migration background face disadvantages of their social origin on their educational attainment. This study used data from the LISS data panel to run different linear regressions. The results show that the intersectional identities of gender and migration background do not influence the relationship between social origin and educational attainment. Overall no effect was found between social origin and education attainment however what was found was that girls have lower educational attainment then boys and that the intersectional identities of being an non-western migrant woman and a native Dutch woman has a negative influence on educational attainment compared to being a native Dutch male. These findings suggest the existence of intersectional differences, a subject that future research could look into more closely.