Family resources and male–female educational attainment: Sex specific trends for Dutch cohorts (1930–1984)

This study investigates cross-temporal gender differences in the effects of family resources on educational attainment in the Netherlands. Our research question reads: to what extent has the influence of parental socio-economic features, cultural resources and school involvement on the educational attainment of women and men in the Netherlands changed over time? Employing three waves of the Family Survey Dutch Population (N = 6059), we test our hypotheses on the changing impact of parental background characteristics on male–female educational attainment. A general expectation is that all family resources have become more favorable to girls over time. Our results first show that especially in the earlier cohorts the effects of parental educational resources were gender-specific: mother's education affected women's educational attainment most, whereas father's education predominantly influenced men's. Second, our results indicate that only for girls, growing up with a working mother becomes increasingly beneficial over time. Finally, the impact of father's occupational resources seems to lose importance over time faster for boys than for girls.