Project Details
Projekt
Gender in the Age of Digitization and Technological Change - Inequalities in the Educational System and the Labor Market (GenDiT)
Applicant
Professor Dr. Malte Reichelt
Subject Area
Empirical Social Research
Term
since 2022
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 500577427
Technological change and digitization (TC&D) induce some of the most crucial changes in modern societies, as they alter the way we learn and work at an unprecedented rate. The rapid changes have the potential to alleviate long-standing gender inequalities: Early in school, girls outperform boys in their ability to engage with information and communication technologies (ICT). The rising ICT demands as well as the robot-induced sectoral shifts should first and foremost benefit women in the labor market. However, the movement towards gender equity in the labor market has considerably slowed down and surprisingly it seems that TC&D even contributes to gender inequality. Against the backdrop of rising digitization, it thus seems particularly important to understand how TC&D affects men’s and women’s educational and employment outcomes. Yet, little is known about these relationships.The proposed junior research group “Gender in the Age of Digitization and Technological Change (GenDiT)” aims to fill this research gap. Drawing on Relational Inequality Theory, GenDiT holistically analyzes how local pre-existing inequalities and social structures shape the impact of TC&D on gender inequality in educational outcomes, fields of study choices, employment, and pay. It illuminates gender inequality at different stages over the life course that in combination contribute to the understanding of the consequences of TC&D. Organized in three interrelated pillars, the aim is to analyze how TC&D in conjunction with social structures affect gender inequalities in (1) the development of male and female students’ ICT skills and their choices for fields of study with varying ICT content; (2) employees’ evaluation of ICT-related positions and employers’ evaluation of men and women who apply to positions with varying ICT skill-demand; and (3) positional power within workplaces and households. The project focuses on Germany, because TC&D, due to the structure of the educational system and the labor market, likely has particularly strong effects on inequality. The core analyses of the project are based on longitudinal survey panel and administrative data (NEPS, IEB). Additionally, novel experimental data will be collected to causally estimate employees’ evaluation of positions with varying ICT skill-demands and employers’ evaluations of men and women applying to ICT-related positions. Using computational textual analyses and archival data of job vacancy ads, it will—for the first time in Germany—be possible to measure TC&D on an occupational level and over a longer period.
DFG Programme
Independent Junior Research Groups
International Connection
France, Israel, USA
