Date: 2024
Type: Thesis
Gender and social implications of military service, caregiving systems, and educational inequality
Florence : European University Institute, 2024, EUI, ECO, PhD Thesis
FEDERMAN, Stav, Gender and social implications of military service, caregiving systems, and educational inequality, Florence : European University Institute, 2024, EUI, ECO, PhD Thesis - https://hdl.handle.net/1814/77597
Retrieved from Cadmus, EUI Research Repository
This thesis examines the impact of life events and institutional policies on individuals’ longterm outcomes across three different settings. The first chapter focuses on the long-term consequences of extended mandatory military service for women, an underexplored area compared to the service of men. Given the nature of women’s military roles, this chapter sheds light on a policy that provided women with early employment experience. Leveraging an exogenous extension of women’s military service in Israel, this chapter reveals that extended service increased women’s participation in higher education in the short term, delayed motherhood, and positively affected long-term labor market outcomes. The second chapter investigates the ”aging parent penalty”: the impact of a parental health shock on the employment of adult children across different caregiving systems. Using data from SHARE, this chapter finds that in countries where the family mainly performs caregiving duties, daughters’ employment declines in response to a parental health shock. In countries where the market primarily provides caregiving services, sons’ employment increases after a parental health shock. In contrast, when caregiving is predominantly government-supported, no significant impact is found on children’s employment. The third chapter explores the evolution of the cognitive ability gap between children of different socioeconomic backgrounds in the UK. Using two British cohort studies conducted in 1970 and 2000, this chapter analyzes the cognitive gap across cohorts at ages 5 and 10. The chapter shows that while the initial cognitive gap at age 5 is similar in both cohorts, by age 10, the gap widens for the 1970 cohort but narrows for the 2000 cohort, suggesting improvements in the education system’s role in reducing inequalities. Together, these chapters contribute to our understanding of how institutional policies and life events shape gender and social inequality in education and the labor market.
Table of Contents:
-- 1. The long-term impact of extended military service on women's employment, education, and fertility -- 2. The aging parent penalty across countries -- 3. The evolution of the social cognitive gap: an analysis of two UK cohorts
Additional information:
Defence date: 04 December 2024; Examining Board: Prof. Alexander Monge-Naranjo (European University Institute, supervisor); Prof. Andrea Ichino (European University Institute, co-supervisor); Prof. Ghazala Azmat (Sciences Po); Prof. Naomi Gershoni (Ben-Gurion University of the Negev)
Cadmus permanent link: https://hdl.handle.net/1814/77597
Full-text via DOI: 10.2870/1052455
Series/Number: EUI; ECO; PhD Thesis
Publisher: European University Institute
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