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Résumé (français)

A striking pattern that has emerged in university attendance in Canada is the so-called gender gap. Since the mid-1980’s women have been increasingly more likely than men to attend universities and now outnumber men in the ratio (approx.) three to two. A similar pattern has arisen in the US and many other countries. Studies by Jacob (2002) and Goldin et al. (2006) point to two main reasons for this gender gap. firstly, the relative financial advantage of a university education is much higher for females. Secondly, women are better prepared for admittance to post-secondary education (PSE). Using the YITS-A data set, which provides information from interviews with high school children at ages 15, 17 and 19, we look at the decision to enter university as an evolutionary process involving both aspirations of students (and their parents expectations) and grade attainment. Females begin at age 15 with higher overall aspirations about PSE and are also more likely to revise upwards these aspirations. The result is that a significantly higher fraction of females end up deciding to attend university at age 19 and this holds even conditional on high school grades. We explore the reasons for this phenomenon and find, not surprisingly, that many of the same family background characteristics that appear to influence grade attainment are also correlated with aspiration levels. There are some differences in the initial formation and evolution of aspirations between males and females.  

Résumé (anglais)

A striking pattern that has emerged in university attendance in Canada is the so-called gender gap. Since the mid-1980’s women have been increasingly more likely than men to attend universities and now outnumber men in the ratio (approx.) three to two. A similar pattern has arisen in the US and many other countries. Studies by Jacob (2002) and Goldin et al. (2006) point to two main reasons for this gender gap. firstly, the relative financial advantage of a university education is much higher for females. Secondly, women are better prepared for admittance to post-secondary education (PSE). Using the YITS-A data set, which provides information from interviews with high school children at ages 15, 17 and 19, we look at the decision to enter university as an evolutionary process involving both aspirations of students (and their parents expectations) and grade attainment. Females begin at age 15 with higher overall aspirations about PSE and are also more likely to revise upwards these aspirations. The result is that a significantly higher fraction of females end up deciding to attend university at age 19 and this holds even conditional on high school grades. We explore the reasons for this phenomenon and find, not surprisingly, that many of the same family background characteristics that appear to influence grade attainment are also correlated with aspiration levels. There are some differences in the initial formation and evolution of aspirations between males and females.