Gender Differences in Educational Attainment among the Children of Canadian Immigrants
Abstract
This article examines the gender differences in university education attainment among the children of Canadian immigrants, observing the extent to which parental human capital and social capital in the family and immigrant community may be more important and/or different for men and women. This allows us to examine the degree to which structural and cultural factors used to explain racial differences in academic achievement are also viable explanations along gender lines. Distinct patterns of upward mobility or possibilities for blocked mobility are segmented not only by race and ethnicity but also along gender lines. This study finds the importance of parental human capital whereby maternal education matters more for girls while father's education was more prominent for son's education. Family structure and feelings of exclusion during childhood have a more important role for women while identification with an ethnic ancestry for men is crucial for their pursuit of higher education.
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1.
The authors wish to thank Isaac Luginaah for his helpful comments. We gratefully acknowledge the support of Human Resources and Skills Development Canada. We would also like to thank the editor and the anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments and suggestions.
2.
1. Because we run separate regression analyses for men and women, we can only focus on the three largest visible minority groups with large enough sample sizes.
3.
2. The question on number of ethnic friends only asked respondents who reported at least one ethnic ancestry, other than `Canadian'. However, those who did not report an ethnic ancestry other than Canadian are included in the analysis as they represent 297 (11 percent) and 370 (14 percent) of the male and female sample respectively. These individuals provide a useful comparison to those who grew up having friends of the same ethnic background.
4.
3. This weight is used in all our descriptive results. In our regression models, we standardize this survey weight by dividing it with the average weight in our study sample.
5.
4. The percentages in Tables 1 and 2 have been rounded according to the Research Data Centre disclosure guidelines. As a result, we could not present the decimal values.
6.
5. The smaller sample sizes for some ethnic groups to begin with would not have allowed us to run separate models for men and women. By running these models separately, we also end up with smaller sample sizes even for the major racial minority groups.
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Article first published online: June 17, 2009
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