Data

The data for this project are drawn from Austrian administrative registers and compiled by the Austrian Microdata Center (AMDC). The project comprises two complementary parts, each based on a distinct analytical sample.

To study the gender gap in STEM education, we construct a sample of all students aged 12 to 15 in 2011. We follow these students for the subsequent 12 years, observing the type of education they enter and complete, as well as their corresponding fields of study. These data allow us to reconstruct individuals’ educational trajectories and identify the factors that widen or narrow the gender gap in STEM education. Additionally, we examine the role of the family of origin by comparing the field-of-study choices of opposite-sex twins. Finally, we investigate several mechanisms through which family background may shape educational choices, including the sex-typicality of parents’ fields of study and occupational sectors, the role models provided by older siblings, and the gender traditionality of the family environment.

The second analytical sample consists of men and women aged 22 to 24 in 2011 who had completed (or were still enrolled) in tertiary education. Using labour market, birth, marriage, and divorce registers, we reconstruct their family and employment trajectories. We first examine whether women who graduate in different fields of study follow distinct family-formation trajectories, both in terms of the occurrence and timing of major life events. We then investigate whether these family-formation events are associated with subsequent labour-market decisions among female STEM graduates: whether they leave the labour market, remain employed but move out of the STEM sector, or remain in STEM while switching from full-time to part-time employment.