Nowadays, the probability of obtaining a higher education degree is higher for women than for men in Russia (Kapelyshnikov et al. 2013), and in other countries (Wilson, Zozula and Gove 2011). The expansion of commercial higher education programmes has led to a considerable differentiation in its quality. These developments were accompanied by significant changes in the labour market. Since the beginning of the 1990-s, the sectors and occupations where female labor prevails (“female” occupations and sectors), such as the service and financial sectors, have been expanding. In these sectors, a higher education degree is often a job requirement. At the same time, the traditionally “male” sectors, such as production and mechanical engineering, where the proportion of ‘blue collar” occupations is high, have been shrinking (Yastrebov 2016). These “new” spheres of employement were characterized by lower pay and fewer professional advancement opportunities. Alongside these transformations, traditional masculinity associated with manual work and men’s “breadwinner” role in the household, faced a crisis (Vanke 2018). These developments produced both opportunities and obstacles for women and men coming from working class families, and the families of professionals and managers. Importantly, the role played by higher education in social mobility, has changed for both genders (Bol 2015). The reason might be that the “new social construction of skill [occupational class] is increasingly based on skill as ascribed rather than simply achieved” (Warhurst, Tilly and Gatta 2017, p. 86). In this situation, skills acquired through socialization in families are growing in importance.

Taking into account these changes, we aim to analyze the changing role of gender in the intergenerational transmission of socio-economic advantages. In particular, we investigate the relationship between parental social status and the social status and education level of their children. Our goal is to test whether the mechanisms of the reproduction of social inequality through education operate differently for women and men from different socio-economic backgrounds. We consider the education level of an individual to see whether education is associated with her achieved socioeconomic status (defined using Oesch scheme (Oesch 2006)).

According to the intersectionality theory, class is socially constructed. The role of women was associated with passivity and the private realm, whereas the role of men – with competitiveness, physical strength and the public realm. The subordinate position of women can be seen in the situation when female work is highly underrated in society and the economy, with many women facing discrimination at work (Bobbitt-Zeher 2011; Cha 2013). These differences in work, also assume differentiation in material conditions and the social status of women and men. Limited access to better education has been always seen as one of the mechanisms that reproduces the disadvantaged position of women. When opportunities in the labour market shrink for men, the mechanisms of the reproduction of socioeconomic disadvantage, may operate through different channels. The analysis of the situation in Russia is especially interesting, because the opportunities to obtain higher education expanded. However, this was not accompanied by sufficient economic modernization. The creation of workplaces attractive for men has been constrained. In the analysis, we use the data from the European Social Survey (ESS). Individuals born in 1954-1986 were selected for the analysis. The information about their parents was collected using retrospective questions. We ran probit regressions to analyze the probability for an individual to achieve higher education. We also ran multinomial logistic regression to analyze the socio-professional status achieved by the individuals (“higher grade service class”, “lower grade service class”, “small business owners”, “workers”). In both cases, we included reported parental characteristics and individuals’ sociodemographic characteristics, such as socio-professional class of parents, urban/rural, ethnic minority status, in the analysis. We use the reported parental socio-professional class instead of education as a more reliable measure (Engzell and Jonsson 2015). In our final model in the analysis of achieved socio-professional class, we also took into account the achieved level of education of the individual.

Parental socio-professional class, was a significant predictor of educational achievement of both women and men in our sample. However, the interaction between gender and class was not significant. The analysis of achieved socio-professional class, showed a negative effect for men whose parents were 'workers' and a positive effect for women (for the achieved status ‘lower service class' compared to the status of 'worker'). This effect remained after we took into account education level of the individual. We conclude that the man from a lower socio-economic background, have lower chances to achieve the status of lower service class, even if they complete higher education, while women are likely to fill the lower service class jobs, rather low paid. These effects for men might be explained by cultural factors associated with the persistence of traditional understandings of gender roles within the families. Another explanation might be the lack of valuable opportunities for men in the corresponding labour market segments. Another reason might be the lower quality of obtained education and the lack of cultural capital. This requires additional investigation.

Selected references: Hancock, Ange-Marie (2007). "Intersectionality as a normative and empirical paradigm". Politics & Gender. 3 (2): 248–254. Vanke, Alexandrina (2018) "Masculinities, Bodies and Subjectivities: Working-Class Men Negotiating Russia’s Post-Soviet Gender Order." Masculinity, Labour and Neoliberalism: Working-Class Men in International Perspective / Ed. by Ch. Walker, S. Roberts. London: Palgrave MacMillan, pp. 195–218.